Dani's Heavenly Delights

THE SWEET STORY

Welcome to Dani's Heavenly Bakeshop! I'm Dani, the award-winning cake designer, baker, and sugar artist behind @DanisHeavenlyDelights on Instagram. My passion for baking ignited at age eight with my first Easy-Bake Oven. After it broke, my father taught me how to bake a cake in a cast-iron skillet, and I was hooked!

While working in the corporate and public sectors after college, I dedicated my nights to cake research, practice, and pushing myself through plateaus. I continued to bake cakes for family, friends, and friends of friends, filling my weekends with their birthdays.

My business goals and urge for entrepreneurship developed while working in a hostile work environment, and during this time, my cakes started to gain more attention. Taking a leap of faith, I left my job to pursue my love of cake and sugar art full-time, and I haven't looked back since!

Over the years, I've perfected my flavor-driven recipes and crafted a signature, smooth, not-too-sweet Swiss meringue buttercream. Dani’s Pink Champagne Cake and Aloha Cake have become the signature cakes for Dani’s Heavenly Delights.

My ultimate joy lies in leaving clients and guests wowed long after the party. Whether for a milestone birthday, wedding, or simply because — I'm here to create a delicious, memorable, picture-perfect cake just for you!

A BIT MORE…

What’s your favorite dessert?  It's whatever just came out of the oven. 

Favorite cookie? Shortbread.

Favorite ingredient you’re obsessed with? Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Vanilla.

Do you have a favorite cake style?  Actually, I love them all, especially wedding cake design. It allows me to blend a couple's personal style into my own creativity and vision—I guess it's the clean lines of contemporary design, the sophistication of elegant and sleek, or even the bold and dramatic. I don’t know. I like it all.

If someone wanted to give you a cake for your birthday, what would it look like?  Probably a tall, semi-naked cake with large fresh roses, mini meringues, and a hint of edible gold. Either that or Jack Skellington!

What's "semi-naked" cake?  It's an almost-nude cake with very little buttercream on the sides, so the end result is cake peeking through buttercream. 

Any training? No, no training. My love for cooking and baking stems from my folks. In our household, they never used recipes. Their influence, combined with my early passion and love for art, cake, and pastry, drives me.

So you’re self-taught? Yes. I never formally went to pastry school and I don't have a background in art or design, but I did think about getting trained professionally. Because I had a full-time job, I thought maybe I could teach myself, which I did. After work, I’d come home and fully immerse myself in all things cake.

Describe a project you’re fond of and how long did it take? I once made a wedding cake that fed over 500 guests and about 525 cupcake favors. It took about 140 hours to bake, prepare the cake and cupcakes, as well as package the individual favors.

What is your ultimate pet peeve? In life or the cake world? Ha!

Name some things you like to do when you’re not creating works of art. I love to cook and host, but I'm not particularly eager to cook for just myself. I find it more enjoyable to cook for others as it's an art form to me. I also love the ocean, long drives, spending time with family, and helping animals. And live comedy. I love to laugh!

What is your cake philosophy?  Never settle for mediocrity and never forfeit design for taste or taste for design. Cake should be beautiful and delicious.