Rose McAdoo has worked in NYC managing a restaurant and a chocolate factory and learned cake designing on the job at Nine Cakes in Brooklyn. Rose says that her brain formats anything she learns into cakes. She has gathered first-hand knowledge about Antarctica after two summer and one winter stint there. She created a seven cake series about her time at the National Science Foundation McMurdo Station. The pièce de résistance was the 5-tier ice breaker cake that included a representation of our nation’s only heavy icebreaker the USCGC Polar Star Polar Star, a vessel needed to clear channels through pack ice surrounding the research facility.

Rose talks about the variety of experiences she’s had in food service prior to seizing the opportunity to work in Antarctica. She left NYC because “You have to take an opportunity like that.” Rose took advantage of the varied work and learning opportunities while she was at McMurdo Station. She used her skills as a visual artist whose medium is cakes to transform what she saw and learned from the research scientists to create a series of cakes. “Whatever I fall in love with most is what I want to share with people” is Rose’s inspiration for her cakes. Rose discusses the creation of the ice breaker cake and shares what’s next for her.