Liz Marek started her cake decorating career in 2007 as a simple hobby to take her mind off of her stressful graphic design career. She really enjoyed the creativity involved in creating custom cakes and the joy that it brought to her friends and family. She soon got requests from friends of friends and then strangers. Before she knew it, she had accidentally started a cake career.
In 2009, Liz opened Artisan Cake Company in Portland, Oregon. Because of her strong art background and talent for drawing/sculpting, she marketed herself as a cake artist and soon became known for her unique wedding cakes and creative sculpted cakes.
Liz enjoys teaching and sharing knowledge and became known on social media for her free tutorials. Soon she was asked to start teaching at cake shows and classes all over the world. Travel became a big part of her schedule and it became harder and harder to commit time to client orders.
Liz released her first cake decorating book, Artisan Cake Company's Visual Guide to Cake Decorating in 2014 and was very successful. At the same time she decided to fully commit to teaching and closed her public bakery.
In 2015, Liz officially opened her online school Sugar Geek University where she continues to teach new techniques, push the boundaries of cake decorating and share her love of sugar art with the community. Liz continues to teach in-person classes as well and is so grateful for the opportunity to travel and meet new people and experience inspiring art and cultures all over the world.
For teaching inquiries please contact liz at liz@sugargeekshow.com
Follow Liz online:
TV Appearances
- Is It Cake? – Netflix
- Super Mega Cakes – Food Network
- Halloween Wars – Food Network
- Duff Till Dawn – Food Network
- Ridiculous Cakes – Food Network
- Foodtastic – Disney+
- AM Northwest – KATU
- Fox 12 Portland Morning Show
- From Sugar Geek to Online Influencer – Podcast Interview
- KATU Lifestyle Feature
Publications/Press
- “Liz Marek – Artisan Cake Company” — Cake Masters Magazine
- “Ask The Expert: Liz Marek” — Cake Masters Magazine
- “Cake Masters – March 2017” — includes a feature on Liz Marek / Sugar Geek Show (Scribd)
- “Liz Marek’s Mermaid 2.0” — SugarWorks blog; mentions that her work has been featured in BRIDES, Oregon Bride, Portland Bride & Groom, Cake Masters, American Cake Decorating Magazine (Innovative Sugarworks)
- “‘Your cake is on Reddit!’: how one small-town baker’s creations went viral” — The Guardian (feature on her viral cake work) (The Guardian)
- “3 Gravity Defying Wedding Cakes That Will Blow You Away” — SugarGeekShow’s blog, referencing that one of her cakes was featured on Outrageous Wedding Cakes (Sugar Geek Show)
Awards & Honors
- 2022 - Inducted into the I.C.E.S Hall of Fame
- 2017 — Named one of the Top 10 Cake Artists, USA by Cake Masters Magazine (Wikipedia)
- 2018 — Nominated to represent the U.S. in the 2019 World Cake Designers Championship (Wikipedia)
- Cake Hero Award — Awarded by American Cake Awards (CookIt Media)
- DMAS 2022 — Cake Artist of the Year (winner) (Wikipedia)
- EAGA (Hong Kong / international) — “Most Inspiring Sculpted Cake” award (Wikipedia)
- Grand Prize — Threadcakes online cake competition (2012, 2013) (CakeMade Blog)
- First Place — Capital Confectioners’ That Takes the Cake! competition (2014) (CakeMade Blog)
- First Prize — Steampunk cake winner in the 2010 CakeCentral competition (CakeMade Blog)