Former resident wins Food Network baking contest

Meyer
Meyer
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Cake created by Beth Meyer.
Provided by Beth Meyer
Cake created by Beth Meyer. Provided by Beth Meyer
Cake created by Beth Meyer.
Provided by Beth Meyer
Cake created by Beth Meyer. Provided by Beth Meyer

A former Monroe woman recently became a Food Network champion.

Beth (Popelar) Meyer and her teammate, MaryJo Dowling, placed first in the network’s “Holiday Baking Championship: Gingerbread Showdown: Stop Till You Drop" competition.

The episode will air at 11 a.m. Thursday and at 6 p.m. Monday on Food Network and Discovery+.

Meyer and Dowling split the grand prize of $10,000. Meyer is using her portion to open a bakery in Mattawan, just outside Kalamazoo.

“It was a fantastic experience,” Meyer said. “I’m competitive by nature, and I’m hyper organized, so I was all in. There was no way I was going to lose. The days are long. You tape/film from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and get up and do it all over again. The company was really good about COVID. We were tested every morning, and if we were negative, we could go film. Some contestants were not so lucky, I heard. I met a great group of people, and I would definitely do it again.”

Meyer, a sugar artist and baker for 18 years, plans to open The Cake Boutique, 65300 City Center Circle in Mattawan, in February. She splits her time between Bloomfield Hills and Mattawan.

Meyer went to Monroe High School and Monroe County Community College and was an adjunct professor of HTML at MCCC.

She earned a degree in English and secondary education from Michigan State University. At age 24, she moved to Ann Arbor and taught speech and web page design at Cleary College.

Then, she became interested in baking.

“I wanted to create cakes for my kids and make lasting memories for them, like my mom did for me," she said. "I can remember looking at slide shows and seeing all the cute cakes my mom made. This is what spurred me to go in this direction, and I guess I took it a little too far! I’m always learning, either taking online classes or going to school. I moved to the Detroit side of the state three years ago, and my kids go to Cranbrook Schools. I needed to meet people, and thought culinary school would be a great way to do that. I had zero experience baking for another company and getting paid. I went to Oakland County Community College from 2019-2021 (due to COVID, it took forever to graduate)."

Her new business will specialize in sculpted cakes and wedding cakes.

“I do a lot of wine, beer and whisky barrel cakes," Meyer said. "They pour the liquor, and it’s cake. People get the best of both worlds. I love creating cake art that is interactive. I usually make wine glasses, shot glass, etc. out of sugar so people can pour the liquid from ‘cake’ into the sugar glass and then eat it. I do a lot of gravity-defying cakes, like cow skulls (I used to live in Texas) that you hang on the wall and then you eat it. I have also done a cowboy boot lamp that is cake, a 2.5-foot classic car cake, truck cakes that move and more. I’m excited to share my knowledge and skills by offering classes to others in the bakery.”

For more information about Meyer's baked goods, visit https://www.bethscakeboutique.com/.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Former resident wins Food Network baking contest