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Wilton Brings Its 'sweet' Baking Classes To Naperville After Pandemic Ended Them: 'There's A Lot Of Love In This Type Of Thing'

Nancy Waters and daughter, Zae, made certain they had a sweet girls' weekend.

When the Indianapolis pair learned the Wilton Sweet Studio was offering its first in-person class since the pandemic sidelined such fun four years ago, they eagerly signed up.

The weekend was to celebrate Nancy's upcoming 60th birthday on Aug. 26 and Naperville became their getaway destination.

"My mom is baking my best friend's wedding cake and I wanted to help," said Zae, 29, who will help decorate the cake for the Oct. 19 wedding.

"We'll do the Riverwalk (during our trip to Naperville)," Nancy said. "(We) visited Kilwin's. And, we had some Chicago (hot) dogs last night."

The mother and daughter were among 16 women who learned the secrets of cake decorating from a seasoned veteran the morning of Aug. 17. Students each paid $109 for the 2½-hour class.

The cake decorating class that Nancy Waters, of Indianapolis, attended with her daughter at the Wilton Sweet Studio was part of their girls getaway weekend to Naperville. (Steve Metsch/Naperville Sun)

Formerly called Wilton School of Cake Decorating and Confectionary Art, the Wilton Sweet Studio is on the fourth floor at the Naperville company's headquarters at 535 E. Diehl Road.

The Wilton company, which has manufactured cake decorating and bakeware products since 1929, has been offering classes for years. For than three decades, Sandy Folsom, director of the Wilton Sweet Studio, taught them at a location in a Darien strip mall.

"To be at corporate (now) is unbelievable," she said.

When the class started at 9:30 a.M. Sharp, Folsom told students, "once you come into my classroom, you're like a sponge."

She offered instruction at a table in front of the room with each action shown on a video screen behind her.

"I want you to absorb everything I'm here to teach you, then go home with what you know. Then, come back for additional classes," Folsom said.

Students came from Lansing, Chicago and other far-flung places. None called Naperville home.

"I'm from Gurnee. It was a hike," Laura Makeever, 56, said of her one-hour drive.

"I started decorating cakes for charity earlier this year and I wanted to up my game. I knew about Wilton having classes. But when I went online to look for classes, they were closed.

"When they opened up, I signed up for the first class I could find," Makeever said. "I love decorating and they have a great reputation."

Cakes For Kids, which raises money for underserved children, is her charity of choice.

"I like the creativity of it, making something for somebody else to enjoy. I love putting a smile on somebody's face," Makeever said.

"For me, it's very therapeutic," she said.

The shape and size of the tip used to apply icing to a cake will determine the type of decoration created, according to Sandy Folsom, director of the Wilton Sweet Studio, located at the Wilton Co.'s Naperville headquarters. (Steve Metsch/Naperville Sun)

Folsom and education coordinator Casey Puehler strolled through the classroom offering advice. One student was told to "add more buttercream to fill the gaps."

"I'm taking it and pulling toward myself. You can take the extra frosting in and do it again. You don't want to press too hard," she demonstrated with a small spatula.

Alexis Lester, 33, lives in far south suburban Lansing, but didn't mind the long drive as she works near the Wilton headquarters.

Lester's goal: Improve her decorating skills.

"I've done my kids' cakes and watched (decorating tips) on TikTok," Lester said as she used an edible gel to create teal-colored buttercream for her cake.

All the equipment was in place for students who hung on Folsom's every word.

Each decorated a two-layer white cake baked prior to the class, choosing from a rainbow of color gels to mix into white buttercream.

Silver metal tips of various shapes allowed the decorator to make different designs of various sizes.

Folsom, who could probably decorate a cake in her sleep, said "squeezing, squeezing, gently, no heavy pressure" as she showed how to make a flower.

"Let the icing do the magic. You're just guiding the position," she said. "Remember, this is your project, your cake."

Folsom encourages students to share ideas: "Why I love teaching so much is we continue to learn from the neighbors around you."

Afterwards, Nancy Waters said she liked how Folsom started the class by demonstrating how to properly frost a cake, something she was did not know beforehand.

Students took their cakes home along with goodie bags filled with baking-related items like candles and cupcake foils.

Makeever, whose cake had flowers on the top and cascading down the side, said she found the class "very fun."

Gurnee resident Laura Makeever wanted to "up my game" by taking a class at the Wilton Sweet Studio in Naperville. The cake she was decorating was going to be donated to raise money for charity, she said. (Steve Metsch/Naperville Sun)

"I learned some tips to make decorating a little easier," she said. "Filling the piping bags, making sure the cake is even and level. And, that it should be fun. It doesn't have to be perfect."

Lester called the class "very informative," adding it was better than watching TikTok or YouTube.

"(Instructors) can tell me what I need to work on and I can see what I need to work on," she said, adding her 10-year-old son would enjoy eating the results of her creativity.

Shanta McGahey, director of brand and community for Wilton, said the return of in-person classes is "so exciting."

"Education is the foundation of Wilton. It's how Wilton started. It's what we do. We've been in this industry for 95 years. … To bring that legacy here to the headquarters, it means a lot for the employees, for our students.

"We see ourselves as the leaders in decorating and baking. So, to us, it's important to carry on that joy of baking and decorating into the new generations," McGahey said.

"Anything can be purchased at a bakery or a store," she said, "(but) there's something really special of making it yourself. There's the creativity. The pride in doing it. … There's a lot of love in this type of thing."

Steve Metsch is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.

Originally Published: August 23, 2024 at 3:30 p.M.

A Class Combo So Good It's Criminal

It would be a crime to miss a baking class with Dawn Zaft, the owner of Criminal Baking Company in Santa Rosa's Historic West End neighborhood. Zaft is hosting two upcoming baking classes.

The first class, from 5-7 p.M., Sept. 22, will help bakers hone their scone making skills. At another class, happening 5-7 p.M., Oct. 13, students will learn to make a perfect mini-pumpkin cheesecake.

Each hands-on session costs $75 and includes a slice of savory pie (chicken, short rib or veggie potpie), salad, nonalcoholic beverage and dessert. Students also get to take home the treats they made in class.

Purchase at bit.Ly/3X6FXTd . 808 Donahue St.

Sharing Her Skills And Her Sweets: Sweet Lucy's Bakeshop A Destination For Great Baked Goods And Classes For All Levels

Lucy Damkoehler of Sweet Lucy's Bakeshop in Bernardston is very much a hometown gal. Although she claims not to know the names of all her customers, she certainly seemed to know everyone in the shop the day photographer Paul Franz and I stopped in to visit.

Her smile and sense of humor seem easygoing, although clearly she is a bundle of energy. And she loves what she does.

The Bernardston native started baking when she was in the fifth grade. She told me she was influenced by her father, who was passionate about food and gardening.

One day when she was in the eighth grade, as she was loading the dishwasher, she recalled, she suddenly thought, "I want to be a chef." Her supportive father immediately started researching culinary schools, although she wasn't yet old enough to attend one.

She worked at the late lamented Elm Farm Bakery in Deerfield in high school and went on to attend the New England Culinary Institute. She cooked in various locations — New York City, Austria, Hawaii — before spending 12 years in Seattle. There she married and had two children.

She wasn't thinking of moving back home permanently. In the winter of 2018, however, the company for which she worked as a pastry chef in Seattle lost its all-important contract at Seattle University.

By coincidence, the owners of the 7 South Street Bakery back in Bernardston were getting ready to retire. They had known Damkoehler for years and called to let her know that they wanted to offer her first refusal on the bakery building. She saw a way out of looming unemployment.

She turned to her husband. A mail carrier, he could get a job just about anywhere. It turned out that he wanted to get one in western Massachusetts. "He was the one who wanted to move back here before I did," Damkoehler smiled.

They relocated to Bernardston, and in October 2018 Sweet Lucy's Bakeshop was born. Damkoehler quickly started offering cooking classes, something she had learned to do in Seattle, first for extra money and eventually because she had discovered she just plain loved teaching.

When Sweet Lucy's cooking school outgrew the busy bakery in 2022, she raised funds to put an addition onto the building, a colorful space completed last year in which teachers and students can prepare and eat food together.

Damkoehler has 15 employees, including six full-time bakers who produce cakes, pastries, spiced nuts, and to-go meals. She supervises the staff, steps in when someone can't come to work, keeps track of finances, and teaches multiple classes.

When I asked how she manages it all, she laughed. "I love what I do," she replied. "I'm one of five kids. I thrive on chaos!"

The classes vary in subject matter. Some use a competition format; others stress collaboration. Most are for adults, but Sweet Lucy's also offers classes for young people from time to time.

Damkoehler excitedly told me that on Sunday, Oct. 20, at 6 p.M. The cooking school will welcome a special guest instructor: Gail Gand. A renowned pastry chef, cookbook author, James-Beard-award winner, and Food Network personality, Gand approached Sweet Lucy's out of the blue.

Gand's daughter is starting her education in Hampshire College this fall, and the chef thought it would be fun to find a place to teach near her child.

Gand will teach a class titled "French Desserts for a Crowd." It will walk participants through the preparation of three classic French sweets: Chocolate-Dipped Madeleines; Chocolate Pots de Crème; and (my personal favorite) Palmiers, yummy heart-shaped puff-pastry cookies.

"She's an absolute legend, a true necessity for female chefs," Damkoehler asserted. "She really has paved the way."

Lucy Damkoehler has a simple mission at her school: "Cooking has to be approachable." She tries to teach her students simple, tasty, replicable ways to produce excellent baked goods.

"Baking's got such a bad rep," she said, explaining that she likes to share "the skills to be flexible in the kitchen."

A full list of Sweet Lucy's classes is available at the bakery's website, sweetlucysbakeshop.Com. Those who prefer to have someone else create delicious baked goods for them may visit the bakery on South Street in Bernardston Tuesdays through Saturdays from 7 a.M. To mid-afternoon.

There, patrons can find popular pastry items like Damkoehler's twice-baked croissants, macarons, and (on Thursdays!) donuts, plus take-home-and-bake savory treats. The bakery is worth visiting for its delectable aroma alone.

Sweet Lucy's Sweet and Spicy Nuts

Lucy Damkoehler sent Paul and me home with bags of these flavorful nuts. I nibbled on them plain, but Damkoehler also uses them to add crunch to salads or to top off a festive pumpkin pie. The nuts may be halved.

Ingredients:

for the simple syrup:

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup water

for the nuts:

8 ounces pecans

8 ounces cashews

8 ounces walnuts

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup raw sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon cumin

2 ounces (1/4 cup) simple syrup

Instructions:

First, make the simple syrup. Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan.

Bring the mixture to a boil. Turn it off and allow it to cool. While it is cooling, preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

When the syrup is cool, make the nuts. In a large bowl, combine the three types of nuts. Mix in the sugars, the salt, and the spices. Pour the simple syrup into the nut mixture, and blend well.

Pour the nuts onto a large, rimmed, unlined (i.E., no parchment or silicone) cookie sheet. Smooth them out flat; they should not be crowded together.

Bake for 10 minutes. Stir well, and continue to cook in seven-minute increments, stirring each time. Bake the nuts until they are toasted and the sugar is dry.

Remove the nuts from the oven, and continue to stir them every few minutes as they cool to make sure they don't clump together.

Store the cooled nuts in an air-tight container for up to three months. Makes about 1 1/2 pounds of nuts.

Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning cookbook author and singer known as the Diva of Deliciousness. Visit her website, TinkyCooks.Com.

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