Milwaukee pastry chef Kimberly Hall began competing on baking competition shows by accident, and has now appeared on multiple shows across Food Network and Netflix. She talked with WTMJ’s Libby Collins about her start in baking and competition shows, starting her own business, making birthday cakes for celebrities, and so much more on this delicious edition of WTMJ Conversations!
A partial transcript is provided below, courtesy of eCourt Reporters.
LIBBY COLLINS: Your coworkers were so impressed with the cakes that you made, they decided to enter you into a competition.
KIMBERLY HALL: Yes. One of my lovely coworkers, she decided to enter me into this cake contest because she had all the pictures of the cakes that I’d done for everyone at work. And then she had a few from when I done it for my friends and family. I’d come to work and I’m like, “Oh, girl, look at this cake.”
And she entered me in this online contest. I don’t even think she knew what the contest was, she just saw cake competition. So, I get a call on my work phone and it’s from a New York number, and I’m like, that’s weird. I answered the phone, I’m like, hi, you know. And they were like, is this Kimberly? I’m like, yes, it’s me. And they were like, you entered into our contest and we think you’d be great for it, are you available to do the contest? And I was like, what contest, and they were — it’s a cake contest that was online. I’m like, sure. And they were like, okay, well, the contest is in New York, can you be in New York in two days? And I’m like, in New York. And it turned out to be the Food Network.
LIBBY COLLINS: You started making cakes for members of the Milwaukee Bucks.
KIMBERLY HALL: Yes.
LIBBY COLLINS: What was your first call?
KIMBERLY HALL: I got a call from the team to create the Bucks’ logo. I’m not sure what they were celebrating, but I created three Bucks’ logos — 3D, and they were gigantic — for an event that they had at the Fiserv. And from that moment on, we were locked in.
LIBBY COLLINS: So, you started getting calls from individual players, too.
KIMBERLY HALL: Yep, I made a cake for Giannis’ birthday that they took out on the floor, and he —
LIBBY COLLINS: What was that? What did you make?
KIMBERLY HALL: It was his shoe. He had come out with a new shoe.
LIBBY COLLINS: That’s a big cake.
KIMBERLY HALL: Yes. I made his shoe. I made a book, and then I put like a quote in there that his dad had said. I put the Greek flag on it. But I had no idea that Giannis has a thing about cakes, so he literally smashed the cake in Peter Fagen’s face. It was so funny.
I made a cake for Bobby Portis. I made a slot machine for him.
LIBBY COLLINS: I want to talk about one that a lot of people noticed: Harry Potter Wizards of Baking.
KIMBERLY HALL: Yes.
LIBBY COLLINS: How did you get on that one?
KIMBERLY HALL: That one was so insane. They called me and said, hey, we’re gonna do this show and it’s gonna be based on the Harry Potter movies. And I’m like, okay, cool. You know, I love Harry Potter. We had to audition for that. They don’t just call you and say, hey, Kim, we want you to be on the show. I had to fly to LA and actually make a cake within three hours.
LIBBY COLLINS: Did it have to be a Harry Potter theme?
KIMBERLY HALL: Yes. They wanted it to be something Harry Potter themed. So, I went and I made a huge Harry Potter suitcase. I created a super huge old-aged suitcase. And then on the front I put the Hogwarts’ logo. And then you could burn it. And when you burn the logo off, there was Voldemort’s face inside of the suitcase.
LIBBY COLLINS: I’m not even going to ask you how you did that, but it sounds amazing. And that was just your audition.
