Cake designer

Age • 46

Why she’s interesting • After modeling for 10 years, mostly in Paris, she needed a career change. “I knew pastries was the way to go, because I’d always wanted pastries to eat,” she laughs. Shortly after completing culinary school, one of Martha Stewart’s people saw her cake at a food show in New York City. Kromer-Schell became an editor at Martha Stewart Weddings, helping to revolutionize the look of the wedding cake from frosty froufrou to sleek fondant. She now owns a cake shop in Sandusky and is known nationally for her work.

Why modeling was hard • “I had to watch what I was eating for about 10 years.”

Return to her hometown • She and her new husband, Scott Schell, moved from New York to Sandusky in 2003 to open her cake shop and buy the 1890 Victorian home that had been in her family for decades. “If you don’t want it to leave the family,” her father told her, “you come home and buy it.” She did.

Nice, slow Sandusky? • Not really. “I’ve probably doubled the work I had in New York.”

Her wedding cake • There was none. Instead, she and her husband served miniature sour cherry and pecan pies. “I’m always around cake,” she explains. Plus, she would have had to make it.

The best dessert ever • Tarte Tatin, a caramelized apple tart

Have cake, will travel • Kromer-Schell flies around the world to set up cakes for her clients.

On Martha • “This is a woman who just wants beautiful things and wants things to be beautiful. If you want to work with her, you just have to pony up and feel that same energy.”

Besides brides • You don’t have to be at a wedding to indulge. Kromer-Schell sells cookies, scones and more from her Sandusky bakery and by mail-order. Check out www.wendykromer.com.