“Patty cake, patty cake, baker, bake the cake, as fast as you can!”
This old nursery rhyme needs some revision, especially when it comes to award-winning baker Ava Stutzman, whose fame involves much more than baking cakes quickly.
Stutzman, 18, of South Lebanon Township, said Lebanon County Career and Technology Center (LCCTC) chef Brian Peffley is the kind of student he’ll remember for a long time.
Ava Stutzman holds her “Bon Voyage” layer cake, one of the pastry dishes contestants had to bake during the competition in Atlanta.
Not only did Stutzman graduate from LCCTC in May as the top student in her class, but she also distinguished herself as what Peffley called a “superstar” during her 28 years as a pastry arts instructor in the school’s culinary program.
Her expertise has earned her two prestigious awards, one locally and one nationally.
Stutzman’s interest in baking began as a child, when she made cookies with her mother, Jennifer, and grandmother, Margie. Now, she’s taken her baking and pastry-making skills and taken them on two geographical journeys.
Most recently, Stutzman made his first trip to Atlanta from June 24-29 to attend the 2024 SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference.
Ava Stutzman holds baked goods she practiced in preparation for the SkillsUSA National Baking and Pastry Arts Competition.
She qualified to compete in the National SkillsUSA Championships, billed as the premier showcase for the nation’s most skilled career and technical education students.
Then, come August, she’ll be heading in a different direction, starting her freshman year at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Clever Cookie
From baking sugar cookies and cupcakes with her family to watching Food Network shows, Stutzman’s interest in cooking developed into spending a day at LCCTC during her sophomore year at Cedar Crest High School in Lebanon.
“I fell in love with it!” Stutzman said of LCCTC’s pastry arts program.
Unlike other vocational or technical schools, Lebanon County’s baking arts program isn’t spread across several years. Instead, Stutzman had to wait until her senior year of high school to pursue these studies full time, but once she enrolled, she quickly picked up new skills that helped her stand out.
When asked why she chose pastry arts as her culinary interest, Stutzman replied, “I love the precision of baked goods recipes and the artistry that goes into decorating baked goods.”
And because the proportions of flour, shortening, leavening agents and liquid in baked goods can’t be easily altered, she says it’s a good idea to start with a recipe and then add your own creative twist, like flavoring.
While pastries are often thought of as sweet, Stutzman says she has recently become passionate about baking bread, which involves many different techniques, including scaling, fermenting, resting the dough, and decorating and finishing the loaves.
Ava Stutsman is getting ready to compete at the World Congress Center in Atlanta.
Aside from baking, she loves eating bread, with baguettes being her favorite, she said.
Stutzman values ​​the use of recipes, so it’s interesting to see what draws her to new recipes.
Stutzman acknowledged that she tends to be a “picky eater,” and said she’s “drawn to flavors that I like and enjoy.”
The awards are the icing on the cake
She also points out that as she learned more about the world of professional baking, she realized that many of the recipes available online weren’t always the right way to make things.
Clearly, Stutzman knows how to do it right, because she’s already won various awards in her chosen field, and her gingerbread house (actually a windmill with a water wheel, which she built over the holidays last year) remains on display at the LCCTC, where it has been awarded numerous prizes.
She has also been inducted into the National Technical Honor Society for career and technical education students.
From left, pastry arts instructors Brian Peffley and Ava Stutzman with some of the awards she has won during her time in LCCTC’s pastry arts program.
Another recent honor Stutzman received was being selected as the recipient of the 2024 Aletta Schadler Community Service/Engagement Award by State University Extension in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania.
The award honors “Lettie” Schadler, who served as Penn State’s housing economist, family life agent and county extension director in Lebanon County from 1969 to 1999. In 1974, she was appointed the first female county extension director in Pennsylvania.
The Schadler Award was presented to Stutzman at LCCTC’s Honors Awards Ceremony on May 23, and the award comes with a certificate and an $800 grant to help him pursue a degree in family and consumer sciences.
Stutzman plans to use the prize money to buy a laptop, kitchen utensils and equipment she will need when she starts classes at Johnson & Wales University in August.
She chose the school because of its college campus atmosphere and four-year educational program. Stutzman plans to graduate with an associate’s degree in bread and pastry and a bachelor’s degree in food and beverage industry management.
After her time at LCCTC and Cedar Crest High School came to an end, Stutzman still had the National SkillsUSA Baking and Pastry Arts Competition on her agenda.
This bread tray showcases Ava Stutzman’s special talent and appreciation for baking.
She won local, regional and state competitions, earning a spot in the Atlanta competition, where each contestant performed the same baking project in front of a panel of judges.
The national competition has a different format, with contestants given pre-made recipes. Stutzman prepared by “practicing and re-practicing,” staying after school to practice recipes and “make sure there were no proportions wrong.”
The practice tray she prepared was enough to whet the judges’ appetite, and as expected, her practice paid off: she won a bronze medal in a competition that featured award-winning participants from across the country.
As Stutzman looks towards new goals and experiences, she shares insight into the experiences that helped her sharpen her focus towards her culinary career.
She praises Chef Brian Peffley for his extensive knowledge and expert leadership, and praises LCCTC’s Hilltop Café, a student-run licensed restaurant that gives students valuable culinary experience in a real-world environment.
While she knows piping bags are her favorite kitchen tool, Stutzman predicts that personal-sized pastries will be the next “big thing” in the baking industry and is looking to broaden her horizons with an internship at a university abroad, hoping she might even start her own bakery business one day.
