“Welcome, bakers,” Food Network’s “Spring Baking Championship” host Clinton Kelly declares as the season five contestants take their places. While the other nine bakers and pastry chefs peer around the work kitchen, Southlake mom and home baker, Jessica Colvin, is busy soaking it all in.
The baking competition’s 2019 premiere is Jessica’s television debut – an opportunity she never dreamed to be possible. But the 28-year-old Dragon alum jumped when she was given the chance to compete on a national stage.
She may have been standing next to established bakery owners and pastry chefs, some of which had experience at Michelin star establishments, but she didn’t let her underdog nature intimidate her. Rather, she was ready to show her kids – and the world – that she was ready to fight.
Finding Baking
Emilee Prado
Jessica may be new to cooking shows, but she’s definitely not a newbie in the kitchen. She grew up baking alongside the women in her family. Jessica marveled at her mother, grandmother and great grandmother who poured their creative talents into their food.
“It’s just always been a part of my family and my lifestyle,” Jessica says. “That’s where my love for cooking started.”
By the age of 12, Jessica knew she wanted to bake professionally. She found a similar passion for art while studying at Carroll ISD schools, and she realized she could channel those skills into her confectionary creations.
“Every elective I had in school was art,” Jessica laughs. “I was not involved in anything else, I just loved everything art, so baking was the perfect platform. It combined two of my favorite things: eating food and making art.”
Jessica wanted to go to pastry school after graduating from Carroll Senior High School, but her parents encouraged her to pursue a bachelor’s degree first. While she had every intention of attending Arizona State University and then going on to pursue baking, Jessica had her first child, Ellie, at the age of 20.
“I was really young,” Jessica says. “So after she was born, I hung onto baking and decided to pursue pastry without a degree. I just wanted to stay with her.”
Jessica started creating cakes for friends and family out of her own kitchen after moving home. After each event, more people would put in orders asking if they could buy her work. Before she knew it, Jessica had a flourishing cake business on her hands.
“It just sort of happened,” Jessica says. “It bloomed into this business, and it turned into a way to make money.”
It didn’t come without hard work. Jessica wanted to expand her offerings, so she started experimenting and teaching herself new techniques, like trendy watercolor cakes. It took some trial and error, but Jessica was quickly able to pick up industry methods and accomplish them in her clients’ orders.
“I have always wanted to try new things and be on top of trends as well as experiment with my own style,” Jessica says. “I would see something that’s inspiring and try to make a cake that was something like that.”
Jessica still draws inspiration from the same places: nature and art. But with her new skill set, new doors started opening for the Colvin family.
Making Her Way To The Big Screen
Jessica never thought her business would land her on TV let alone on Food Network’s “Spring Baking Championship.” She didn’t even put her own hat in the ring.
Taylor Masters, one of Jessica’s friends, covertly submitted Jessica’s application for the show, which led to a Food Network producer surprising Jessica with a phone call a few weeks later.
“I knew she would never send an application in herself, so I took matters into my own hands,” Taylor says. “She’s so talented at so many things and has always created these amazing floral arrangements that have inspired her gorgeous cakes. The show was a perfect fit for her!”
The producer asked if Jessica was still interested in participating in the competition, and Jessica eagerly said yes.
The next few weeks included several more phone calls and a few Skype sessions to prove that Jessica was a serious baker. She proved her stuff and landed a spot on the nationally televised showcase. Jessica joined nine other bakers to duke it out for the title and $25,000.
Food Network
Host Clinton Kelly poses with contestants for a photo, as seen on Spring Baking Championship, Season 5.
These bakers included talented cooks and chefs from across the globe, and each contestant had an array of education and industry experience. As the only home baker and the only self- taught competitor, Jessica may have at first seemed like an underdog. But she came ready to put her head down and create the sweets she’s known for.
“I want to win for my kids and show them that you can be an underdog, and you can come out on top,” Jessica tells viewers during the season’s premiere.
In that first episode, Jessica created spring animal donuts and a watercolor cake that got great reviews from the show’s judging panel: pastry chef Lorraine Pascale, pastry chef and owner of Charm City Cakes
Duff Goldman and chef and entrepreneur Nancy Fuller. “These shows are no joke,” Jessica says. “When the time starts, you are really running and trying to just get everything done. No one is there to hand you what you need. You just need to focus on what’s in front of you.”
Her desserts earned her a spot in the second week where she reimagined Southern favorites like a rhubarb pie and Belgian waffles on a stick. The judges, however, found fault with Jessica’s literal interpretation of the challenge, and, spoiler alert, she was sent home by the end of the second episode.
While she did not become the Spring Baking Champion, Jessica says the competition was an amazing learning experience.
“I was honestly terrified to go on the show,” Jessica says. “And I just realized if you go outside of your comfort zone, something amazing can happen.”
Planning What's Next
Emilee Prado
Jessica enjoyed watching the two episodes with friends and family, and she’s even kept in touch with a few of the other contestants. But other than being recognized at Starbucks a few times and gaining a larger social media presence, Jessica is most excited to see what’s next for her family and her business.
Jessica’s kids, Ellie (8) and Miles (4), both spend time in the kitchen watching their mom work on orders. And she hopes to inspire them to find a passion for baking.
“Ellie currently wants to be a rock star, but she loves to bake,” Jessica says. “She always loves being in the kitchen with me.”
Her son, Miles, is a bigger fan of eating her final products than watching the magic happen, but Jessica hopes to pass on her beloved family tradition of cooking together.
“I hope they will have memories of us doing that together and that’s the reason they like to bake,” Jessica says.
Jessica also hopes to inspire others to expand their baking knowledge with her new classes. She offers private decorating parties in her clients’ homes where they can invite friends and family to learn what it takes to create a pretty, polished cake. Everyone is given the same plan – designing a stacked cake – and can complete the task under Jessica’s careful instruction.
“You get to learn something, take home a cake and eat it,” Jessica explains. “They are so fun.”
She brings all the tools necessary to ensure her guests can accomplish a beautiful final product. And she hopes to show locals that with a little bit of practice, they too can make something they can be proud to serve.
“People are often intimidated by the steps it may take or the amounts of ingredients you work with, but it’s not that difficult,” Jessica says. “It just takes time like anything else.”
Through her private sessions, Jessica aims to show others what her self-taught training and even the show taught her: If you set your mind to a task, practice your skills and take a little bit of a leap, you can achieve your goals.
“You can do things you are scared to do,” Jessica says. “If you practice like I did, you can do it.”