How To Become A Pastry Decorator: What It Is and Career Path

What is a pastry decorator and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a pastry decorator. For example, did you know that they make an average of $15.32 an hour? That's $31,862 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 16,300 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScorePastry DecoratorUS Average

Salary

2.5

Avg. Salary $31,862

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.5

Growth rate 8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

8.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.46%

Asian 8.60%

Black or African American 9.12%

Hispanic or Latino 19.89%

Unknown 4.52%

White 57.40%

Gender

female 81.32%

male 18.68%

Age - 42

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 42

Stress level

5.5

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

4.7

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.1

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a pastry decorator

Explore pastry decorator education requirements

Most common pastry decorator degrees

Bachelor's

35.0 %

High School Diploma

25.0 %

Associate

25.0 %

Start to develop specific pastry decorator skills

Skills	Percentages
Custom Orders	59.08%
Specialty Cakes	40.92%

Complete relevant pastry decorator training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New pastry decorators learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a pastry decorator based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real pastry decorator resumes.

Research pastry decorator duties and responsibilities

Maintain high CIA standards in all dessert preparation and presentation
Decorate cupcakes to owner's specifications using different decorating tools and techniques.
Keep slicers clean to health department standards between usages.
Handle the meat slicers, clean and sanitize after use.

Prepare your pastry decorator resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your pastry decorator resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a pastry decorator resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable pastry decorator resume templates

Build a professional pastry decorator resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your pastry decorator resume.