Candace Nelson is the founder and pastry chef of Sprinkles, the world's first cupcake bakery. Started in Beverly Hills in 2005, Candace's sophisticated take on the classic American cupcake revolutionized the baking industry and made Sprinkles an overnight bakery sensation.

Sprinkles Cupcakes now has 40 locations across the country, including its innovative cupcake ATMs. While Candace has stepped back from day-to-day operations, she remains on the Sprinkles board and turned her entrepreneurial acumen to toward other areas of the food and retail industry. She launched Pizzana in 2017, a growing chain of Michelin Bib Gourmand-awarded neo-Neapolitan pizzerias; co-founded Play 2 Progress a growing chain of children's sensory learning centers the same year; and recently launched CN2 Ventures with her husband, Charles Nelson, which invests in early stage and growth stage companies in the retail, food, direct-to-consumer, and branded consumer product sectors.

Candace is an executive producer and judge of Netflix's Sugar Rush, a baking competition show during which contestants flex their creativity, whipping up sweet and, sometimes, unexpected treats. She is also executive producer of a new food competition show to begin streaming on Hulu in 2022. She filmed the first 10 seasons as a judge of the global hit Food Network show, Cupcake Wars, and has appeared on Good Morning America, Today, The Chew, The Talk, Nightline and in O, Vanity Fair, InStyle and People magazines. Her cupcakes have been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show and in Bon Appetit, Food and Wine, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. 

Her debut cookbook, The Sprinkles Baking Book, is a New York Times Bestseller and she is publishing a business book for first time founders with HarpersCollins Leadership in 2022. Candace is also a Wall Street Journal contributor.

Candace spoke on the connection between play and innovation in her TedxWesleyanU talk in April 2021.