Meet the Artist

Julia San Bartolome’s cake decorating wizardry brought to life the stunning 15th Anniversary cake you see on this issue’s cover. Readers were first introduced to the Oxnard native and her daughters in our Spring 2015 issue with the article on healthy hiking snacks. Since then, we’ve been lucky to have San Bartolome’s words and recipes on using beer in chili and cooking with brown butter. (If you haven’t made her Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Filling recipe from our Winter 2017 issue, you need to. Now.)

“The planning and creative process was my favorite part of the cake project,” says San Bartolome, who has a degree in pastry arts from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. “I used to make two to three wedding cakes every weekend, so getting back into my chef coat for a special project like this was great.”

Though she likes to cook comfort-food dishes like chili, she admits to being a baker at heart. “Fruit pies and tarts, decorated cookies, custards and layer cakes are my real passion in the kitchen,” she says.

San Bartolome was the corporate and executive pastry chef at Sweet Arleen’s in Westlake Village . She and her Sweet Arleen’s team were three-time winners in the Food Network’s “Cupcake Wars.”