We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Julie McAllister. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Julie below.

Julie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?

My career as a cake artist came to be over time. Originally, I went to college and grad school for Advertising, which set the stage for working at various marketing agencies over the course of my 20s. As a lifelong hobby baker, I always had a pull in the back of my mind for a career in a culinary field. As my baking hobby became a daily obsession, I was beginning to entertain the idea of going to culinary school to pursue a career in baking. After all, I had gone to school to get degrees to work in the field of advertising, so it made sense that I would need to go to school again to get started in the field of cake. The problem was, I was still paying off my student loans from grad school, and honestly couldn’t stomach the thought of taking out more loans on top of those without being 100% sure this was the career path I now wanted to take. So I went the path of what I thought would be the next best thing—real world experience. I went to a local bakery and worked out a deal with them where I would come in and work the 5–9AM shift in the mornings, then head to my full-time 9–6PM job after that. This experience proved to be invaluable and it taught me two extremely important lessons that I would have otherwise completely missed:

1. Working at a bakery taught me that I never wanted go down the path to own a traditional brick and mortar bakery. This was huge! Before working there, I had the mindset of “I want to make cakes, so what do you do with that? I guess you open a bakery.” At the time, I genuinely thought that was the only path you could take. So not only did I learn about other avenues of creating a baking business, but I learned that this path I was working in firsthand was NOT the one I wanted to go. Had I tried to jump right in and start a bakery on my own without working in the field first, I would have learned a very expensive, and time-consuming lesson.

2. The second crucial lesson the bakery job taught me was that I did not, in fact, have to go to culinary school to pursue a career in a culinary field. I was working with a blend of both people who had gone to culinary school and those who had not, so I got to hear from them first-hand the pros and cons of that decision, and how I made the realization that where I was at and the type of baking career I wanted to create, a degree was not a necessity for me.

It sounds like I’m exaggerating when I say taking this bakery job was the most important step in the success of my current career, but when you break it down into those two key lessons, it’s easy to see why the set me on the path of being able to create my business the way it is today.

Julie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a Charleston-based cake artist who artistically transforms the centerpiece of any celebration—cake—into an astonishing life-like representation, elevating the traditional dessert into an awe-inspiring work of art. I work closely with each client to ensure that the design exceeds their expectations, then use my meticulous eye for detail and artful hand to create extravagant designs that deceive and delight the eye. From wowing a wedding party with a whimsical Insta-worthy groom’s cake to capturing the essence of a brand with a playful product presentation, my work has captured the attention of celebrities and national brands. My clients include Reese Witherspoon, Garden & Gun and King Bean Coffee. You can see me in action on the Food Network and Discovery+ on the latest season of Holiday Wars. My work has also been featured in HGTV Magazine, Entertain & Celebrate and SKIRT, and I was also honored as one of the winners of the Create TV Cooking Challenge.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Because my art is illusion based, for me the most rewarding thing in the world is when someone has sheer disbelief that the item they are looking at (a basket of roses, a Duke’s mayonnaise jar—anything!) is actually, in fact, a cake! When they have to study it up and down because they don’t believe what they’re seeing, that is the ultimate success for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://juliemcallistercakes.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliemcallistercakes/

Image Credits
1. Citrus Tree, Oysters, Moscow Mules, Rattan Vase w/Sugar Roses Cakes—all by Chia Chong Photography (https://chiachong.com/); 2. Picnic Basket Cake w/Sugar Roses and Pears, Julie Painting Pears—all by Cameron Wilder (https://www.cameronwilder.com/)