INPERSON
ICING ON THE CAKE
Bethel Park Resident Takes the Cake
on Food Network’s ‘Cake Wars’
BY HEATHER HOLTSCHLAG
Tristan Slater (left) and Emily Bartlow in
Food Network’s “Cake Wars” kitchen.
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B
ethel Park resident and Grove City College senior
Tristan Slater can still remember the smell of her
mother’s cinnamon rolls wafting through the air
on Christmas morning. It was a recipe that was passed
down by Slater’s grandmother.
“Before I could even read, I was begging to help my
mom roll them out, fascinated with watching the dough
rise,” she recalls.
Slater has had an interest in baking for as long as she
can remember, particularly with pies, cakes and cookies,
and especially “healthy” baking options. “My mom was a
bit of a ‘health nut,’ and I was the guinea pig, so to speak.
And no matter what ingredients she used — chickpea
flour, tapioca flour, honey or dates — it would always
turn out delicious.”
Slater recently got the opportunity of a lifetime
to showcase her love of baking, as she and college
roommate Emily Bartlow appeared on the February 1
episode of the Food Network show “Cake Wars.” Even
more exciting, they won the grand prize of $10,000, a
secret they were under contract to keep from the time
the show finished taping in October until it aired in
February. That was perhaps the most difficult part of the
process.
“Keeping a five-month secret of that magnitude is no
easy feat!” Slater said. “It was all I could do not to tell
friends and family and let them in on the excitement that
we not only were on the show, but that we had won! We
did both tell our parents, however, as it’s pretty difficult
as a 21-year-old student to just jet off to California
with