Lori has been a Culinary Arts instructor for twenty years developing curricula, lesson plans and instructing.  She has taught high school classes and college courses on food, desserts, baking, and other culinary topics. She regularly instructs adult continuing education on chocolate artistry, candy, pastries and other exotic topics. Additionally, Lori has developed and run several cooking and baking camps for children. She also has taught dozens of online cooking and baking classes for children. Lori has participated in various cooking, cake and chocolate contests including X and Y, and has earned numerous distinctions such as Z. She even was a runner up on Top Chef. Lori has hosted an Annual Cupcake extravaganza, where students and faculty compete in contests before high-profile judges. Lori has used her interests to raise thousands of dollars for charities using the byline “Saving the World one Cupcake at a Time.”  Although competent in several areas, her favorite medium is chocolate. Besides baking with chocolate, she has spent created chocolate centerpieces, gifts, decorations, and showpieces.  She has been a longtime member of the International Cake Exploration Society at the state and national level.  She has attended hundreds of classes throughout the United States taught by industry leaders. Additionally, she has taken advantage of online learning from experts in the field. Always curious, she has visited dozens of chocolate factories, shows and expositions and even chocolate plantations. Lori has published several chocolate, dessert, and food related articles in various magazines. She also has authored hundreds of articles on these topics on her website.

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Karen Sladyk believes life is best when you explore learning with all your senses, including tastebuds. She has been studying and teaching cake decorating methods and chocolate topics for over 30 years. Unrelated to her “day job,” she set out to credentials a chocolatier, advancing to Best of Show and three first places in the Advanced Chocolate Category. She has attended many shows, conferences, classes, training and contests relating to chocolate, culinary crafting, cake decorating, and baking. Despite earning multiple first place awards, she is now interested in simplifying the techniques for speed and ease and making chocolate and cake decorating accessible for all people. Karen is an occupational therapist of over 40 years who specializes in mental health and research. After earning her PhD from the University of Connecticut in Adult Education she became interested in finding more effective ways to help all learners succeed in their goals. She enjoys teaching culinary crafting through mixed media to a variety of adults. She has made hundreds of homemade masterpieces, showpieces, gifts and party favors relating to culinary crafting and desserts. She is an expert in travel, creative arts, and health education. When not working with her students from Westfield State University on special community projects she lives with her cat, Cocoa-Latte in Connecticut.