Professional Pastry Chef Kelli
Taranto offered incredible pastries including macarons, cookies and other sweet treats at the Moultrie Community Farmers Market. Photo by Jill Stringfellow Photography
This red velvet wedding cake for 150 guests exemplifies Kelli’ s trademark blend of timeless elegance and bold flavor – just as she advises for any unforgettable wedding dessert.
Kelli fondly recalls how the team’ s collective support turned everyday challenges into opportunities for creative problem-solving. She noted that being a pastry chef means managing multiple tasks at once— essentially acting as a double taskmaster— and that in navigating the intricacies of delicate pastry designs for high-stakes events, this balancing act was made all the more manageable by their unwavering collaborative spirit.
“ We all picked each other up, worked together and figured out solutions. It was really the best job I ever had. The diversity, the training— their motto,‘ Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen,’ is so true,” she explains.
Kelli’ s early foray into wedding cakes came during a three-month internship at The Cloister at Sea Island— a resort where weddings were abundant and creativity was limitless. Whether crafting multi-tiered masterpieces adorned with delicate pink roses or perfecting the intricate details of gum paste, she learned firsthand what it took for a cake to be both a visual marvel and a structural feat. Yet, the daily difficulties were as numerous as they were educational, to include transporting a wedding cake through sweltering Southern days, ensuring that every layer arrived intact.
JULY 2025 MoultrieScene 43