DREAM. COME. TRUE.

I got to visit the WILTON Cake Decorating School & Store and the WILTON headquarters office!!!

Let me tell you all about it…..

I grew up with WILTON.

My mom was a cake decorator for 12+ years and she only used WILTON products. She was a self-taught decorator. I remember how she used to buy the annual WILTON yearbooks and study them to learn the techniques and tools. That’s how she helped our household financially during tough times. She is truly amazing!!

Funny how life surprised me and lead me to follow in her creative footsteps. I don’t decorate cakes but I do love sugar art and I love WILTON products like she did.

During my trip to Chicago, I was invited to the WILTON HQ office to meet the team, tour the facility and do some fun hands-on projects.

Before all that… I sneaked away that morning to check out their school and retail store which was located within a few minutes drive.

I was BLOWN AWAY!!!

Every inch is filled with inspiration, dreamy products, tips and deals.

The store clerks were very knowledgeable and super nice.

 

 Seriously…. everything you could ever want is here.

Supplies for baking, cooking, decorating, packaging, transporting, and even gifts… they were all here!

They even had an “Answer Center” where you could type in your specific topic and get all the info you need.

I was like a kid in a candy store after she has already eaten tons of sugar. Yes, you better believe I filled up my basket and dropped some cash!

 All the way in the back of the store, you will find these windows. They peek into a section of the classroom.

WILTON offers a variety of classes throughout the year ranging from all kinds of price points, skill levels, mediums and time frames.

{You can SEE FULL LIST OF CLASSES here}

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Now let me take you around their headquarters office:

 We started my tour at their Test Kitchen.

They use a variety of household grade appliances to make sure they are developing recipes that their consumers will be able to make at home.

 I paired up with two of their culinary specialist to make two recipes.

{Keep reading to see what we whipped up}

 Check out their cookbook library. My mARTshmallows book is definitely going up there!

 Right off of the Kitchen was the Prop Room.

 I want! I want! I want! is all I could say over and over.

 Next, we headed into the Filming + Event Room. You know all those awesome WILTON how-to videos you’ve watched on YouTube? They have all been filmed here.

 Here they host all kinds of events and meetings.

 Guys…. this is the room that was the most interesting to me. Mainly because I have MUCH to learn still about styling and photography.

The Photography Room was unbelievable. These pros made it look so easy and fun.

 It was very interesting to learn some inside tricks and tips to how they do it at WILTON.

 Check out the background boards behind this guru. Some day I hope to have this many.

 Hold still….. Now we’re in the Projects Storage Room.

 

We’re talking shelves and shelves filled with cakes, cupcakes, cookies, sugar pieces, pops and more. Hours, days, months, years of work all stored here.

I was explained that they often re-purpose pieces so they store whatever they can for as long as possible. I can relate, I keep my marshmallow pieces too.

 These Dia De Los Muertos decorated sugar skulls are “Mexican approved.”

 Lastly, we entered the Decorating Room.

Here is where the fun magic happens!!!

 One of the decorators, Emily was working on this Willy Wonka showpiece while I was there. Her skills are out-of-this-world!

 Everyone was working on different things.

Here is another decorator who was working on a tie-dye cake using the new WILTON Color Right Performance Color System.

 I got to get crafty with marshmallows 🙂

 We made these adorable marshmallow cupcake pops and marshmallow donuts.

 After all the excitement our bellies were ready for some treats!

Earlier we had made Pumpkin Spice Fudge and S’mores Cereal Treats.

I was impressed with the new WILTON Treatology flavors. They were really good. They were super concentrated and didn’t taste artificial at all.

After we all dug into the goodies during our last meeting of the day, it was time to say “till next time.”

I left WILTON HQ with a smile on my face, an overload of inspiration in my brain, a happy heart, a car trunk full of new supplies and three treat boxes filled with sweets to share on my hands!

I’d like to thank everyone at WILTON for your hospitality and generosity. I had the best experience ever!!

Thank you 🙂