Today’s guest is Julie McAllister, a Charleston-based baker known for her hyperrealistic cakes. Julie transforms cake, fondant, and modeling chocolate into lifelike creations—from magnolias and oysters to designer handbags and Charleston architecture. She has also been a contestant on Netflix’s “Is It Cake?” and Food Network’s “Holiday Wars.”

Julie joins host Jessie Sheehan to talk about her baking journey, from childhood cake mixes to discovering her love of decorating in grad school after a memorable Christmas tree cake attempt. She shares how she taught herself how to decorate cakes from cookbooks, her early days juggling a 4 a.m. bakery shift with a full-time job, and how she built a business focused on hyperrealistic cakes.

They also dive into Julie’s signature work, from groom’s cakes to custom creations, and she walks Jessie through some of her most memorable designs, including a handbag cake for her Reese Witherspoon and a citrus topiary cake made of mini cakes.

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More on Julie: Instagram, website