Claire Ptak

Training at Mills College gave Claire Ptak a formal base before she moved into pastry and the image-led work that would define her practice. At Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, she worked as pastry chef in a kitchen known for ingredient-first cooking; that influence shows in the careful, restraint-driven approach that has long run through her work. In 2005, the scope widened further into food styling and editorial writing: since then, she has been food stylist of Freelance / celebrity chefs including Yotam Ottolenghi, Nigella Lawson, and Jamie Oliver, while also serving as food columnist of The Guardian and The Observer. Since 2008, she has been founder and owner of Violet Cakes, a business closely identified with her contemporary pastry style.

Violet Cakes in London’s East End is where Claire’s pastry is currently anchored. The bakery’s setting matches the work: urban, direct, and attentive to detail. As founder and owner, she continues to shape Violet Cakes from the centre, holding the line on tone, finish, and the visual language that has carried through her wider career.

Claire’s signature dishes include the royal wedding cake, Amalfi Lemon & Elderflower, Love is a Pink Cake, and The Violet Bakery Cookbook. Read as a set, they show a pastry practice that moves between event cake, retail cake, and book form without losing its own register. The names point to the work itself: citrus, floral notes, and a measured visual fullness that gives the cakes presence on the table as well as on the page. The Violet Bakery Cookbook extends that approach into print, where the style can be kept, revisited, and worked from again.