The Confectionist

Meet the face behind the biscuit that's breaking the internet Celebrities, historical figures, community heroes, your adorable kitten and even your mum become delicious edible artworks in the skilled hands of Georgia Chiarella, the queen of the "Face Biscuit".

Her innovative business, The Confectionist has only been going two years but has already captured public imagination and loads of social media love with her sweet rendering of famous faces – Anna Polyviou, Miguel Maestro, Peter Hitchener, Frida Kahlo, Costa Georgiadis & Katherine Sabbath, to name a few – as well as her range of bright, original celebration biscuits in quirky collectible tins.

Georgia is winning industry acclaim too, awarded Cookie Artist of the Year by the Australian Cake Decorating Network in 2019. She combines innovative digital printing and icing techniques with her signature skill and love of vibrant colour to create biscuits as you've never seen before, from bright florals to cats, dogs and edible make-up kits.

The Confectionist is the realisation of a lifelong dream for Georgia, whose operation is based in Melbourne's west. As a teenager, she started making cakes and biscuits, combining her talent for drawing and art to create delectable delights to share with family and friends. It was always about the icing.

"I was the one who always ate the icing and left the cake," she laughs.

Georgia spent over a year living and travelling through Europe honing her craft, exploring new baking and decorating techniques and absorbing the influences and culture of the world around her, she returned to Melbourne in 2018.

She took a leap of faith and opened The Confectionist, bringing her creative flair and gift for design to every aspect of the business, from the products range, biscuit tin designs, the packaging, the branding to create and overall gifting experience.

"The idea of biscuit gifting is very unique – our tins add a definite wow-factor not only from the biscuits themselves, but from the keepsake tins, too. As for our Face Biscuits, I wanted to create something so completely personalised, that absolutely anyone, any age could enjoy and devour."

Her range includes quirky gift tins for teachers, footy biscuits for sports fans and even an elegant tin full of iced treats for newlyweds.

But it's her famed Face Biscuits that really stand out in the crowd. With exception detail handrendered in royal icing, they've been described as 'the Willy Wonka of biscuits.' Georgia is the first to bring Face Biscuits to Australia, and has won over fans like Australia's sugar king Adriano Zumbo.

Customers can order bespoke biscuits, too, and Georgia admits that she and her team love the challenge of creating a one-off edible masterpiece.

"It's so exciting to be able to produce a biscuit that matches a client's imagination. Our most creative biscuit to date would have to be the 'Spaghetti Bolognese' set. The pasta, the garlic bread, the plate, and even the cutlery was all created into biscuit form!"

"There's no shape that's too intricate or odd: there's creativity in every idea and we think we can create a show-stopping biscuit for every occasion."