Kerry quite accidentally in her kitchen. “I was working with a piece of paste one day when somebody rang me, and we talked a bit too long,” she recalls. “I thought the paste was beyond using, and I found myself sitting there, still talking on the phone, while I was doodling with a cutter in the way people doodle with pencils on paper. I was cutting and cutting and wasn’t even watching what I was doing when suddenly, a piece dropped and I realized that I could make layers and layers of cutwork to give designs real depth and dimension, and I couldn’t wait to get off the phone and get to work! I did not invent inlay, the Greeks and Romans took care of that, in stone millennia ago, I simply did it in sugar!” “The rest, she says, “is history.” And what does the future hold for Kerry? “I’ll do more TV; there’s no question about that,” she says. In addition to Food Network Challenge, Kerry will be lending her judging talents to The Great Australian Bake Off, a network television show premiering in her homeland this year. “This is the very first time a cake artist has moved into mainstream TV,” she notes. “Everything else has been done on cable so far, so this is opening a door for others who have the ambition and inclination to walk through.” While cake art, she says, is in its “teething stages,” this passionate, outspoken and dedicated trailblazer is optimistic about its future. She believes the industry is on the right path to becoming a universally respected art form, earning its place in museums, and she’s more than happy to help pave the way.
Kerry with fellow judge Dan Lepard on the set of The Great Australian Bake Off.
28 www.EdibleArtistsNetwork.com
Once a reluctant wedding cake designer, Kerry Vincent is now one of the cake industry’s leading advocates, vehemently honoring its history while helping to secure its future. Via television appearances and her annual Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show, Kerry educates the masses and attracts generations of artists, enthusiasts and consumers to the craft. She might not sugarcoat her words, but she says what she believes and fortunately for the industry, her expertise and razor-sharp candor has people listening.