SALT LAKE CITY (Good Things Utah) — From baking wedding cakes to competing on the Food Network, Kimberley Rivers and her team, “Rebels Without a Claus” won this season’s Food Network Holiday Wars. She joined us on the show to tell us all about it.
Before going on the show, she had been making custom cakes for 2 1/2 years. She found a passion for making custom wedding cakes and working with brides. When Food Network reached out about being a competitor on the show, she was both nervous and excited about the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
With just a couple of sugar/isomalt classes under her belt, she was selected to be the sugar artist on her team. She was randomly placed on a team with perfect strangers:
Erin Erler – Boston Massachusetts Cake artist
Bryan Rivera – New York City Baker
Kimberley Rivers – Farmington Sugar Artist
The team quickly became friends and by the conclusion of the show, they were family. They competed in challenges week after week and they ended up winning 5/6 challenges, which was a new record for the show.
Rivers says that the show was one of the hardest things she has ever done both mentally and physically, but also one of the best experiences she has ever had thanks to her amazing team.
She put a few of the pieces from the challenges on display including the candy cane trophy, lantern, potted plants, mushrooms, a bag of marbles, gingerbread cookies, and a baseball all made out of sugar.
To follow along with Kimberly, find her on social media @cakesinthecity.Utah and be sure to watch this season’s Food Network Holiday Wars.