Get to Know the Bakers Competing in 'Spring Baking Championshiop' Season 11

Season 11 of Spring Baking Championship is fiercer than ever before: The addition of one more competitor makes for a baker’s dozen of 13 impressive chefs vying for baking bragging rights. Host Jesse Palmer is back to shepherd the crew of talented chefs through the gauntlet of sweet creation challenges in the Little Shop of Spring Magic — where anything is possible. A trio of confection masters is on set to lend their palates, advice and judgment: Duff Goldman (Duff: Ace of Taste), Kardea Brown (Delicious Miss Brown) and Nancy Fuller (Farmhouse Rules). Ahead, meet the amazing bakers battling for a $25,000 grand prize and the title of Spring Baking Champion.

Also known as Chef Jaye, the Miami-born pastry aficionado specializes in “creating cakes, cupcakes and dessert tables for life-defining moments” in her home base of Atlanta. She gravitates toward incorporating the tropical flavors of her South Florida upbringing into her recipes and is ready to bring her A game to the championship. “If I’m going to be successful in this competition, I am going to have to learn to think on my feet, so I’m moving,” she says.

The mom, pastry chef and chocolatier says, “Chocolate is definitely my jam.” Her chocolate business in St. Albert, Alberta, Canada, focuses on handcrafted sweets like bonbons, bars and confections.

“Even though I was not classically trained, my training comes from life — I went to the university of grandpa and YouTube,” jokes Kareem of Brooklyn, New York. “My grandfather allowed me to be anything and everything I wanted to be. He prepared me for today.”

“Being in this magical place and this kitchen, I’m feeling good,” says Lauren, a chocolatier and pastry chef from Freehold, New Jersey, who specializes in molded bonbons. “Creativity is my superpower, and I think it's going to give me a leg up in all of the challenges,” she says. Lauren began her baking journey as a youngster, with her grandmother teaching her how to make scrambled eggs. “From that moment on, I was taking culinary classes at my local rec center and cooking for my family,” she says.

The pastry chef owns a bakery with two locations in the Sacramento, California, area. “I’m here on Spring Baking Championship to prove to myself that I am one of the top pastry chefs,” Julian says.

“I’ve watched Food Network since I was a kid with my grandmother,” Corey says. From those early culinary beginnings, he earned scholarships and grants to attend pastry school and worked at top restaurants and bakeries to hone his skills. “I think I’ve got enough under my belt where I can be some hefty competition,” the Washington, DC-based competitor said.

This cake designer and mom of three is ready to show her chops in the Little Shop of Spring Magic. “I really want to be able to prove to myself that I can do this,” Jamie, who lives in San Mateo, California, says. “Being here is really pushing me out of my comfort zone.”

This self-described spunky, bubbly baker based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, has been in the sweets business since she was a teen, launching her bakery at age 16 and opening the doors to the first of two storefronts at 22 years old. “I love being in the kitchen. When I got married, I got the chance to make my own wedding cake, it was way taller than me,” Raveena says. “It was super, super obnoxious, but I was so in love with it.”

“Being here to me means I have come a long way,” says Kari, an executive pastry chef based in San Diego who shares that she is more than seven years sober. “The rough times I have gone through mean I can win this, because I’m a very strong-willed person. I have literally rebuilt my life,” she says.

At just 5 feet tall, Lisa, an executive pastry chef at a catering company in Boston, may be small in stature, but her culinary creations are mighty. Another baker who has been in the kitchen since childhood, Lisa hopes to share her love of cooking and hard work with her own child. “I am competing for my daughter to show her that you can do anything you put your mind to,” she says.

Trained in Paris and at Michelin-starred restaurants throughout Europe, Paul now runs a Bay Area bakery with his wife, who is also a chef. The couple has three children.

Though her mother might have had other dreams, baking has always been Mary-Frances’ passion. The culinary instructor, now based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, grew up around delicious food and knew she wanted to make it her career. “I enrolled myself into baking school and my mom was so sad, because [according to her,] I was supposed to be a dentist,” she says with a laugh.