Rose McAdoo Shares Climate Change Science With Her Cakes


Our planet is a hot mess right now, but there are artists making powerful work for change, while it’s on fire. Rose McAdoo is one of these artists. Whether crafting a cake atop a glacier or whipping up treats onboard an Arctic ship, each of her tasty creations tell a story. Her goal is to communicate the heavy topic of climate change and execute her sweet artform out in the field. It’s clever. Through playful and hopeful desserts, she is helping introduce and explain the science behind bigger ideas to as many people she can reach.

For Rose McAdoo, the challenge lies not just in the logistical hurdles of baking in remote locations but also in translating dense scientific data into digestible narratives. Her projects range from Ice Core Lollipops that mirror glacial records to Ocean Acidification Eclairs, sparking conversations on climate impacts.

Crevasse Lollipops – Champagne extract and blue Pop Rocks (to mimic the flavor, feeling, and sound effects of bubbles that get trapped in glacier ice) Photo: Rose McAdoo

She is a dynamic, courageous, curious, and informative human, my favorite kind. Her close connection to the wild is one most of us will only experience through VR. She is the real deal.

The first time I spoke with Rose McAdoo about how she bakes cakes to raise awareness around global issues, she called me from the front seat of her (parked) car while adventuring in Coober Pedy. She was on a mission to bake a dessert in this magically weird little Australian town located underground an opal mine.

A person in a hard hat, sunglasses, and high-visibility vest stands in front of a large white balloon at a snowy construction site with machinery in the background.

Rose McAdoo at Long Duration Balloon facility on the Ross Ice Shelf Photo: Laura Cass

Rose went from fours years of making glamorous wedding cakes in New York, to guiding other humans on glaciers in Alaska, to running a NASA research camp on Antarctica’s ice sheet. Rose makes desserts in the wild to connect her career skills with her artistic curiosity about our planet.

Rose initially took a job offer in Antarctica at the Long Duration Balloon facility on the Ross Ice Shelf, as the camp’s sous chef in 2019. After only a few years, she now manages this facility supporting NASA research and launches and is responsible for facility maintenance and operations; cargo, fuel, and water deliveries, not to mention the initial camp construction and end-of-season takedown.

Antarctica, picture the view… and now, the cold and the gear. Besides the admiration of just getting there, living there, and working a strenuous food service job, she makes the time to learn and create.

A person on a snowy landscape prepares a meal with a portable stove. A sailing ship is anchored in the background under a cloudy sky.

Sugar process Photo: Freddie Gluck

“As I learn, I’ve found that my brain explains topics to me by quickly visualizing new information as desserts. Making that intersection between food and science is really fulfilling to me – despite its dramatic challenges in the field.”

Close-up of numerous small blue bubbles clustered together on a surface, with a soft focus effect that gently blurs the background.

Sugar process – “I boiled sugar with a bit of water from Exit Glacier. Cooking that mixture to 300° F – six times that of Seward’s average summer temperature,” says McAdoo. Photo: Rose McAdoo

Side-by-side images: on the left, a glacier with a deep blue crevasse; on the right, numerous small, blue crystal formations arranged on a white surface, reminiscent of Rose McAdoo's intricate edible art.

Glacier Crystals – Fresh water, elderflower, bergamot Photo: Rose McAdoo

Rose enjoys living in her community made up of the support teams and scientists. The knowledge she’s acquiring while living and working in Antarctica drives her art form further. While attending a lecture at LDB, she couldn’t help but make a comparison to tempering chocolate, the science of her wheelhouse. Or understanding biodiversity/extinction affects by imagining removing an ingredient, like flour or baking soda from a cake recipe.

She explains: “In the same way, if you move one species from an environment or if you remove one piece of the glacier formation equation, it doesn’t necessarily still work. Every ingredient must be present in nature to maintain homeostasis.”

A person in winter gear stands on a snow-covered mountain with a large backpack labeled "CAKE INSIDE" against a backdrop of snow-capped peaks and a cloudy sky.

“Sign made me damn popular on Denali as every pilot, climber, and rescue ranger asked ‘do you *really* have cake in there?’” Photo: Rachel Heckerman

Given the seriousness of the environments Rose works in, she appreciates the levity of cake, and how it allows people to let their guard down and be more receptive to scientific ideas.

Four-tier cake with a bottom white tier and three upper tiers featuring blue and white marbled patterns. The top tier is a solid deep blue color.

Tiered cake Photo: Rose McAdoo

Rose had the guts to take her little cake sketches and ask “I wonder if I can pull this off? This is weird, and absurd, but I’m gonna make them anyway and see what happens.” Of course, while talking to her, I couldn’t take my catering hat off. I kept imaging all the improvisational problem-solving moments. There are no re-runs at that altitude. You must have multiple back up plans plus carry all the gear. “The rush from pulling something together in our planet’s wildest places makes me feel more alive than anything else,” McAdoo says.

Imagine how difficult it must be to execute that level of culinary muscle on an Antarctic ice shelf. Where are your prepping, assembling? What are you passing it on? Is the cake good at that temperature? But more importantly I wanted to know: “Who eats the cake? IS everyone eating the cake? Picture a climber hearing that someone just unveiled a 4-tiered salted juniper cake with evergreen buttercream made with glacier water. Brilliant!

Before onboarding a triple-masted ship for her recent Arctic Circle residency departing from Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Rose and I discussed her latest edible art collection. Eating Away shows the relationship, loss, and change in the high Arctic and the resulting impacts on humans and wildlife in our polar regions. She addresses consumption of information, loss of habitat, and human destruction, while celebrating our environment and making data digestible.

Here is a glimpse into her process from cake and dessert sketches to photographs:

A person stands on a large, isolated piece of ice surrounded by smaller ice fragments in the water.

Photo: Edmée Van Rijn

A hand holds an open notebook with a drawing and notes labeled "Glacier Loss Cake" against a backdrop of icy waters and snow-covered glaciers.

Photo: Rose McAdoo

Series of handwritten sketches and notes displaying different research tools, techniques, and experiments, including base camp party cake, harness tools, ice lake, Tootsie Roll runs, and pancake batter.

Photo: Rose McAdoo

A person spreads icing on a large cake while on a wooden deck of a ship, with snowy mountains visible in the background.

Rose McAdoo making, assembling, and decorating the cake onboard the Antigua tall ship. Photo: Rose McAdoo

A person sits at a wooden table on a ship with snowy mountains and a glacier in the background. The table holds various tools and equipment.

McAdoo and her dark rye malted cake with Norwegian brown cheese buttercream, a lingonberry soak, crispy stroopwafel crumble, and salted edible rocks made with charcoal, cardamom, poppy seeds, black sesame, and dark chocolate Wasa biscuit. Photo: Meg Roussos

Rose aims to expand her impact with upcoming exhibitions and a feature-length documentary. With help from grants and self-financing, her work continues to bridge the gap between art, science, and public awareness, aiming to make daunting topics like climate change more accessible through the universal language of food. The upcoming release of her Denali project documentary, Creative Approach, is making its way through the film festival submission world. Rose shared a sneak peek trailer with us here:



Creative Approach documents the two-week collaborative art residency at Denali Base Camp between McAdoo, painter Klara Maisch, and filmmaker Rachel Heckerman. Each pushing their creativity higher, bigger, and harder than ever before at 7,200 feet.

A person holds a blue carabiner with knots in one hand, with their legs and hiking boots visible on snow below.

Mountaineering Knots – White chocolate and local snowmelt Photo: Rose McAdoo

Rose produced a bunch of desserts that communicated various aspects of glacier science in a Jet boil camp stove on top of the 44-mile-long glacier. Klara painted a 7-foot-tall oil landscape, and Rachel filmed and photographed the whole project while snow camping for the first time.

Three people in winter clothing play a board game on a snow-covered ground beside a yellow tent.

Elevating passed bites of Crevasse Candy Bars – Blue ginger caramel, macadamia nut nougat, Alaskan sea salt  Photo: Rachel Heckerman

Rose McAdoo’s life journey is a testament to the power of creativity in facing global challenges. As she navigates between icy landscapes and pop-up kitchens, Rose exemplifies how art can inspire change – one delicious creation at a time.

To learn more, head to rosemcadoo.com.

TJ Girard is a sought-after food designer and creative consultant, celebrated for staging theatrical, interactive food + beverage experiences. She now resides in California where her creativity is solar powered! TJ writes the Design Milk column called Taste.



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