The Daily Dot is celebrating Woman Crush Wednesday, better known as #WCW on Twitter and Instagram, by highlighting female creators on YouTube whose work we admire.
If you can dream it, baker extraordinaire Yolanda Gampp can bake it. A stuffed Thanksgiving turkey, a Vegemite jar, emojis, a human brain: They’ve all been caked. In the 10 months since starting her channel How to Cake It, Gampp’s videos have cooked up over 42 million views, proving her a rising digital star to take notice of.
Her channel is a mix of novelty cake tutorials, general baking tips, and her interactive series #CakeTalks, a Google Hangout series she conducts with fans every Thursday at 9am ET.
Inspired by her father, Gampp always knew she wanted to be a baker and cake decorator, teaching herself how to decorate at a young age. Over the past 15 years in the business, Gampp has become known worldwide for her novelty cakes with one of her first major successes coming in the form of an edible Birkin bag for a socialite’s party. From there, Gampp found success on the Food Network’s Sugar Stars before seeking out YouTube to directly create and share with her audience of YoYos.
And the icing on top of the cake? Gampp is hilarious! Her personality nearly pops through your screen, as she can’t contain her excitement over fondant and red velvet.
Through her website, Gampp provides copies of each of her recipes along with reviews of and links to baking products she adores. She is dedicated to checking and responding to fan comments every day and works endlessly to provide viewers with the tutorials they crave most.
On every level, Gampp is a role model. For aspiring bakers, her tutorials are accessible education experiences that push individuals to think of unique ways to combine art and food. For the rest of us, her decorating tutorials are a source of endless, mesmerizing entertainment that will suck up an hour of your workday. But what sets Gampp apart most from the other cooking channels on YouTube is the example she sets for fans, especially as a women of color in a white male–dominated profession. Gampp’s success shows that with hard work and passion, a dream job is possible—an inspiring footnote for anyone in any profession working against the odds.
The world is sweeter with your creations, Yolanda Gampp, so bake on!
Screengrab via HowToCakeIt/YouTube