The beautiful, perky and talented Michelle Bommarito was back in Nashville this week to teach more of her cake tips and techniques.  For those of you who don’t know, Michelle has competed in several Food Network cake challenges in the past few years and worked for Martha Stewart.  She has been featured in wedding magazines and prominent wedding across the country…and back to Nashville to make our friend Kathy Wise’s wedding cake as she marries John Gentry tomorrow. 

I had the pleasure of spending time with Michelle during the 2009 Tennessee Cake Festival in February.  I learned there is much more to this amazing soul than is shown on TV.  Not only is she animated and extremely charismatic, she is incredibly spiritual and driven with an intense passion for all things she believes in.  Michelle has a knack for remembering names of all those in her classes and makes it a point to greet each person before she begins to learn their names and thank them for coming.  As the day goes on, she calls people by name when they ask questions, making each person feel a little more special. 

Before she went back home last time she moved me to tears.  I want to be like her!  There…I said it.  No, I will never shrink to 5 foot nothing and about 90 pounds soaking wet, but I vow to   have the deep passion that drives her to accomplish all of her goals.  When Michelle makes a wedding cake, she refuses to let any bad or negative feelings enter the room.  She wants to fill the cake with love and believes everyone who eats it will taste that love throughout.  She talks to herself as she decorates, using borders called a “hug and love” and concentrating on only one cake a weekend that she pours her heart into.  

I arrived at the Music Valley Event Center at 8:30am on Wednesday and we started moving.  God bless Michelle’s one and only assistant because I’m sure  that chick is a hard worker!  There is always something to be done and Michelle is very particular about…everything.  I made the mistake of saying “picky” at one point and she corrected me.   She is particular because her name is going on every product out the door.  She did not call her business “Michelle Bommarito, LLC” for nothing.  

 She calls me “Baby Girl” which makes me giggle.  If you saw the two of us together you’d know why.  It’s so sweet and endearing and I’m SO far from looking like her “baby girl” I can’t help but smile every time I think about it.  I’m fairly certain I could scoop her up and put her in my pocket if I wanted to.  I wish I could post a picture of us back to back.  Unfortunately not a single one of those photos turned out.  

Michelle demonstrated her suitcase, zebra print, book technique, romantic scroll, and bows.  She packed quite a bit of information into a 5 hour class.  Contrary to popular belief a person doesn’t whip out a cake, even a faux cake, in less than that amount of time.  She answered a lot of questions and talked with everyone afterwards as they came up for pictures.   She’s a gem and I look forward to her coming back again! 

Thanks Michelle (and Sweetwise!!) for allowing me to be a part of such a great day!