Cleveland Lady Takes The Cake

MORRIS'
TALENT
AMAZING

By David Johnson
The Leader

Kerri Morris is an artist, but you won't find her work hanging on anyone's wall or inside a ritzy gallery.

And you likely never will.

That is, unless there is some kind of celebration or party taking place.

Morris, you see, is not your typical artist. She doesn't make paintings or drawings. She doesn't do pottery. In fact, she's never taken a single art class.

But an artist she is.

As for Morris' canvas? Well, it is as unique as her talents.

Not many artists apply their trade to sugar and flour.

But Morris does.

Meet Mississippi's version of Chef Duff from the Food Network's "Ace of Cakes."

"It's just something that I've always loved to do," Morris says of her ultra-neat cake creations.

Morris is about to take her cake - and talents - to a grand stage. She's one of only eight cake decorators nationwide selected to compete in the National Capitol Area Cake Show March 21-22 in Burke, Va. She will participate in a category titled "My Flower Garden," where her challenge will be to impress a panel of cake experts with her edible floral treat.

She earned the invitation by impressing renowned and internationally recognized cake master Norman Davis.

"I met him (Davis) last year at a cake show in Atlantic City," she related. "We began corresponding, and he told me he would really like to see me at this show. It was narrowed down to eight decorators from all over the country, and I got the notification that I was one of them."

The Food Network will be milling around the event, perhaps even searching for the channel's next star.

"Well, I'm too excited to be nervous," Morris related. "This is what I love to do. I feel honored that I'm just one of eight."

Morris' creations have ranged from elephants to pigs and from Power Rangers to Easter baskets. She'll design and create a cake for any occasion, but there's one area she doesn't delve into.

"I don't do sheet cakes," she said. "People can go to Wal-Mart and get that. Wal-Mart doesn't make my kind of cakes, and I don't make theirs."

But if you're in the market for a 5-foot long, 3-foot wide and three-and-a-half foot tall Dolphin cake, Morris is your decorator. That particular cake was so big, it had to be assembled on sight.

"That one was tough, and it had to be delivered all the way to Baton Rouge," she said, adding that the Dolphin cake had a $1,200 price tag.

Innocently enough, Morris stumbled into cake decorating sort of by accident. The mother of three, began baking birthday cakes for her children.

"And now they all like to help," Morris says with a laugh. "Well, they like to lick the bowl.

"My husband, Brian, bought me an airbrush for Valentine's Day. I was thrilled. I'm probably the only woman in the world that got an airbrush for Valentine's Day and liked it. I'll be able to do a lot of cool stuff using it on my cakes."

Morris says she is considering leaving her day job for the full-time cake world.

"All I need is somebody to put me in business. There's no one else I know of doing this anywhere in the Mid-South," she said.