KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When it comes to decorating cakes, 14-year-old Natalie New is not that fast. But she is spectacular.

Take the floral bouquet cake the Overland Park, Kan., teen made two years ago. The top decoration consisted of 58 multicolored roses made of gum paste that had the look of fine porcelain. Every flower had 17 petals, individually sculpted, then hand-painted and assembled. The process took 61 hours.

That attention to detail helped Natalie capture first place last fall in the prestigious Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show and Grand National Wedding Cake competition in Tulsa, Okla. The contest is the top cake decorating competition in the country. Natalie won $50 in cash and $50 in supplies for taking first in the teen division for tiered wedding cakes.

She won with an Eiffel Tower cake that featured a scale-model replica of the iconic Parisian structure, and getting the proportions right was not easy.

“I took the actual calculation of the full-sized Eiffel Tower in France and reduced them down to a size that would fit on a cake so that it would have the correct slope,” she said.

Natalie taught herself to decorate cakes by reading books and watching the experts do it on the Food Network. She would freeze the TV shows, frame by frame, and try to copy all the advanced techniques. From there, it was a matter of endless trial and error until she mastered them.

Recognizing her ability, Natalie’s parents took her to Texas when she was 10 to meet and train with famed cake artist Bronwen Weber. Weber, owner of Frosted Art Bakery in Dallas, is a frequent competitor on the “Food Network Challenge.” She remembers Natalie’s visit.

“I think the cake world should watch out,” she said. “Someday soon, a star will be born.”

Natalie does more than bake and decorate cakes. She teaches other kids, from ages 7 to 12, to do what she does.

Last year in Johnson County, Kan., all five of her students won purple ribbons (the top prize) for their cakes in different categories. Natalie gave a cake decorating presentation in November at the Olathe, Kan., public library.

So, given her considerable talents, the question is natural: Is she going to be a professional cake decorator when she grows up?

No, she says. Cake decorating is too stressful.

So what does she want to be?

“A pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon,” she says.