Pretty Witty Cakes’ Tutors
Suzi Witt
Suzi is the founder and owner of Pretty Witty Cakes. Suzi’s graduated from Oxford University in 1997 with a 1 st Class Honours Degree in Egyptology/Oriental Studies. From there she was head hunted by a top London law firm where she trained and became a litigation lawyer and subsequently litigation counsel working on some of the most high profile litigation in the world.
After having her first child in 2008, Suzi decided to make a dramatic change in her career path – a change that led to leaving the legal world behind and the creation of Pretty Witty Cakes. Suzi is now well known in the baking industry. She was a Star Speaker at the Cake & Bake Show at Earls Court, London in September 2012, a finalist in the 2012 Baking Industry “Rising Star” Award and the winner of the Highly Commended Award for the Mumpreneur Best International Trader. Her cupcakes have also won first prize in an recent international competition. Suzi’s first cake decorating book will be published in September 2013.
Suzi’s nickname has always been “Sweets” due to her love of all things sweet (mainly Haribo – hence every parcel that leaves Pretty Witty Cakes shop contains a complimentary pack of Haribo sweeties!).
Suzi and her team at Pretty Witty Cakes teach nearly 2,000 students a year. Those students come from all over the world especially to attend the classes. Suzi primarily teaches those new to baking as well as those with established businesses. Many of Suzi’s students have gone on to set up successful cupcake and cake businesses.
Some of the classes Suzi teaches are:
- Cupcake Basics .
- Wedding and Party Cupcakes .
- Retro Stencilling & Royal Icing Cupcake Class .
- The Cupcake & Cake Business Class (for those wanting to set up their own cupcake and cake business).
- The Enchanted Fairy Garden Cupcake Class.
- The Chocolatier Cupcake Class.
- The Farmyard Cake Class
Michelle Rea
Michelle Rea is the founder and owner of Inspired by Michelle Cake Designs based in Sydney Australia.
Known across the world for her stunning work with chocolate cakes, Michelle will be flying in all the way from Australia as a Guest Tutor of Pretty witty Cakes in September and November 2012.
Michelle trained as a pastry chef and has worked in some of Australia’s leading food companies. However, her true passion is chocolate! With over 24 years baking experience behind her, Michelle’s recipes have featured in well known magazines in Australia and she is passionate about sharing her baking knowledge with others.
Michelle has used chocolate with her cakes so well that she can create beautiful, clean, sharp edges that are absolutely stunning on any tiered cake. She also works with fondant at a high level to sculpt and carve cakes such as her world famous Chocolate Owl Cake .
A day with Michelle at Pretty Witty Cakes is any chocolate lover’s paradise.
The classes Michelle teaches are:
- The Chocolate Owl Cake .
- The Sharp Edged Chocolate Cake
- The Wired Flowers Class 1
- The Wired Flowers Class 2
- The Sharp Edge Wonky Cake Class
- The Christmas Bauble Class
- The Ruffle Cake Class
- The Square Chocolate Cake Box Class
- Glorious Flower Cupcake Class
- Decorating Master Class
Kaysie Lackey
Kaysie Lackey is the founder and owner of The People’s Cake based in Seattle, USA. An internationally famous cake artist and cake sculptor, Kaysie will be flying in from Seattle as a Guest Tutor of Pretty Witty Cakes again in June 2013.
Kaysie has a background in the arts, including a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts from Belmont University. She combines art and fashion to create original and over-the-top designs for her clients and competitions.
Kaysie has won numerous awards and is a Star of the Food Nework Channel. Her unique style is known around the globe.
Kaysie will be back with us teaching her gravity defying cakes in June 2013
This is a real opportunity to learn from the Master of Cake Sculpting!
The classes Kaysie teaches are:
- The Designer Shoe Class .
- Blown Away Betty Class
- Higgins the Butler Class
- The Scottie Dog Class
- Galloping Gus Horse Cake
May Clee Cadman
May Clee Cadman is the award winning founder and owner of Maisie Fantasie and a Guest Tutor at Pretty Witty Cakes. May has combined her background in art and design with baking to create beautiful cakes for all occasions but especially weddings. As a result, she has been known as one of the UK’s leading baking and cake makers.
May is also well known for her fantastic recipes and creative mix of ingredients. From light sponge to rich chocolate fudge cakes, May creates each recipe carefully using only the purest and highest quality ingredients.
As well as having many celebrity and top London hotels as her clients, May’s cakes have been featured in ‘You and Your Wedding‘, ‘Brides‘, ‘Cosmo Bride‘, ‘Wedding‘, ‘Hello‘ and the Sunday Times ‘Style‘ magazine and our UK television credits include ITV, BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5. She has also written two baking books.
May was also voted the winner of the Perfect Wedding Awards in 2011.
The classes May teaches are:
1. The Baking MASTER Class .
Kelvin Chua
Kelvin Chua is the award winning founder of Vinism Sugar Art in Malaysia and an internationally recognised cake artist and master of royal icing and cake painting. His cakes are literally breathtaking and will make you stop and take a second look!
Kelvin travels the world to showcase his amazing skills and we are delighted that he has joined Pretty Witty Cakes as a Guest Tutor from 2013. One of the amazing skills that Kelvin will teach is how to work with royal icing to create 3D work on cakes such as a flower standing up. He work resembles the finest lace work on a cake.
The classes Kelvin teaches are:
1. The Royal Icing Master Class ;
2. The Stained Glass Buttefly Cake
Sarah Barnard
Sarah Barnard is the founder and owner of Barney’s Bakery. She is a London based wedding and celebration cake maker who designs stunning cakes and cupcakes.
Formally a 1st class honours graduate of London School of Economics, she changed career later in life to pursue her dream of making cakes and has never looked back.
Her eye for detail, and expertise on a variety of techniques such as sugarveil meant that she is now the recommended cake maker of choice for some of London and Hertfordshire’s top wedding venues.
Through additional training at the London School of Fashion, Sarah combines fashion, art and cake making into one to create stunning cakes that are second to none
The classes that Sarah teaches are:
1. The SugarVeil MASTER Class .
Dawn Butler
Dawn Butler is the founder and owner of DinkyDoodle Cake Designs. Dawn is an expert and leading air brush cake artist with a worldwide following.
Dawn’s passion for cake decorating spans 17 years and her unique creations have been requested around the world with patrons including many celebrities. Dawn is always pushing the boundaries of what is possible with cake and she achieves many of her fantastic results by airbrushing her creations.
Dawn has also designed her own airbrushing kits which she uses in her classes here and around the world. As a resident expert and guest judge for the Australian cake decorating network, Dawn has a wealth of experience and regularly features in magazines and shows.
The classes Dawn teaches are:
(1) The Airbrushing Class .
Natasha Collins
Natasha Collins is the founder and owner of Nevie Pie Cakes and a Guest Tutor at Pretty Witty Cakes. Natasha’s career started as an illustrator and then moved to textile design as a senior designer and assistant art director.
Natasha started baking and decorating cakes as a hobby. It was a real eureka moment when she decided to pick up her paint brush, and she hasn’t looked back since! She now creates her fabulous painted cakes for many and varied occasions. Her clients include everyone from brides to leading corporate names such as Selfridges and Westfields and many celebrities.
Natasha also has a growing international reputation for teaching cake painting skills, and her classes are very much in demand. As a Guest Tutor at Pretty Witty Cakes, she has designed a very special and exclusive class for our students.
Natasha also works as a food stylist, consultant and art director, and has been involved in some amazing projects including The Kerrang awards, the bridge of cake for Westfield’s opening, and ‘Cakey Perry’ high teas. Her work has appeared in sugarcraft and wedding magazines, the mainstream press and television.
The classes Natasha teaches are:
- The Cake Painting Class .
Rachel Hill
Rachel is the founder and owner of Rachelles and a Guest Tutor at Pretty Witty Cakes. Rachel, who specialises in wedding cakes and mini cakes graduated from The University of Central England where she obtained a First Class Honours Degree in Theatre Design. Prior to founding Rachelle’s, Rachel was a freelance Set Designer and Art Director working in film and TV as well as advertising and interiors.
Rachel and her team have built up a strong reputation within the Wedding Industry, with Rachel’s work featuring regularly within many of the leading Bridal Magazines.
Rachel also supplies cakes to some of London’s most prestigious hotels and has a wealth of experience in making wedding cakes and mini cakes.
In 2010, Rachel was nominated as one of three Finalists at the Baking Industry Awards, ‘Celebration Cake Maker of the Year’.
Rachel’s unique style and exquisitely designed cakes have meant her wedding cakes and mini cakes are regarded as some of the best in the world.
The classes Rachel teaches are:
- The Mini Cakes Class.
- The Two Tier “Big” Cakes Class.
- The Cookie Class
- The Bird Cage Chocolate Cake Class .
- The Three Tier Vintage Cake Class .
Zoe Clark
Zoe Clark began her career as a pastry chef working in some of the mostly prestigious restaurants in the UK and Australia. In 2006, Zoe moved to London and is now famous for her contemporary and stylish wedding and celebration cake designs.
As one one of the UK’s leading cake designers, Zoe’s work regularly appears in the UK bestselling bridal and sugarcraft magazines and her cakes have featured on TV shows. Her clients include many celebrities.
Zoe has produced 5 books and has recently started supplying the world-renowned Fortnum and Mason store with an exclusive range of wedding and celebration cakes and cookies.
Zoe’s clean and contemporary style is recognised across the UK for its elegance and style.
The classes Zoe teaches are:
Paul White
Paul is a master baker having baked bread the traditional way for over 20 years.
When Paul started baking 20 years ago, he worked with the original bread methods and used a brick built faggot oven in his bakery. Ever since then he has baked the traditional way in an award winning bakery using the purest natural ingredients and “proper” techniques.
Paul’s kitchen is always brewing a new kind of bread as he loves to experiment – whether that be working with new recipes, gluten free products or a new type of flour. His bread is divine and the smell as it cooks out of this world.
Paul’s passion for bread making is completely infectious and there is nothing he doesn’t know about bread, bread making techniques and the science behind bread.
The classes Paul teaches are:
Grace Stevens
Grace Stevens is the founder and owner of Cupcakes by Design in Cape Town, South Africa.
After graduating in 1999, she was a children’s teacher for 9 years before she began decorating cakes as a hobby.
Grace’s natural talent immediately became apparent when she started modelling fondant and she has never looked back.
Grace teaches in her home town in South Africa and travels to teach overseas amasing a world wide following the art of fondant modelling and cake decorating. Grace will release her first cake decorating book in November 2012.
Grace has designed an EXCLUSIVE Pretty Witty Cakes’ Family Picnic Class to teach her amazing modelling skills and will be with us in September 2012.
The classes Grace teaches are:
- The Family Picnic Class (People Modelling).
- The Bride and Groom Modelling Class.
- The Giant Teddy Bear Cake Carving Class .
Gavin Hoey
Gavin is a world renowned photographer & teacher of all things photographic.
Gavin has a huge international following and over 20 years of photographic experience. His work is a regular feature in Digital Photo Magazine, the biggest selling photographic magazine in the UK.
Covering a range of photographic disciplines, Gavin’s online training videos have had in excess of 12 million views. His popularity stems from his ability to make a seemingly complex subject into something easy to understand & interpret – something for which he has been praised during his Food Photography Class at Pretty Witty Cakes.
Gavin’s passion & enthusiasm for taking fantastic photos and teaching others to do the same knows no bounds.
The classes Gavin teaches are:
Sam Hoey
Sam is both a photographer and a food blogger.
Her recipes & photos have been featured in the hugely popular ‘Good to Know’ Recipes page & ‘Eat In’ Magazine. Her food blog was recently featured in the top 5 favourites in Making Cakes & Bakes Magazine. Her recipes are also featured in the massive sell out cook book by Macmillan ‘The Little Book of Treats’ distributed nationwide by Marks & Spencer.
It is Sam’s recipes that are used to make the food which is the subject of the Food Photography Class.
Sam also works in food styling and combines this skill with her photographic knowledge. She is the queen of turning everyday items into amazing photoshot backgrounds.
The classes Sam teaches are: