SugarTiers

SugarTiers is a collaboration between sugar-paste artist Rosalind Chan—whom Teresa Kruze of Metro Canada calls "an international superstar in the cake decorating world"—and her former student, experienced chocolatier Evalin Chong. As Chan told Duhlicious food blogger Madalina Paul in 2010, she learned the art of baking from her mother, and left her native Malaysia to study French pastry at the renowned Ritz Escoffier school in Paris. She immigrated to Canada, where she decided to give up a successful corporate career and devote herself to the art of professional cake decorating. Chan then returned to Malaysia to found and teach at the International Centre of Cake Artistry, one of the largest baking institutes in that country.

Chong holds a diploma in food-and-beverage management and is a certified wedding planner. Both women have shared their expertise as Wilton Method instructors, and stay ahead of ever-changing wedding-cake trends. Chan told Sue Kanhai of YorkRegion.com, “Years ago, no one knew what red velvet was—they thought it was a fabric! Now it’s such a hip thing." The popularity of red-velvet cupcakes was also the topic of a 2010 article in the Toronto Star, which mentioned SugarTiers' tasty version.

The duo offers baking and decorating courses in at their shop, where they teach students to cover cakes or scratch-prone leather furniture in layers of colourful fondant. They also operate a retail supply store, take-out bakery, and catering operation, handcrafting more than 36 flavours of macarons and cakes such as dark chocolate or moist carrot and pineapple.