Hi, my name is Mikaila Riehm, I'm currently working on expanding my business CakeGeek and have just this year gotten a small case at My Make Studio in Denver where I sell my creatively designed cakes, cookies, and take custom cake orders. Before that I spent many years working for Wholefoods as a baker and cake decorator both before and after going to the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts to obtain my Baking and Pastry degree which I completed four years ago with a 2 month internship at the Sugar Plum bakery in Paris, France. I had worked for two years in the pastry industry before I decided to go to school for it and now I can't imagine doing anything else.
In high school I felt pressured to choose a career and my school had a program with Boulder Tech school that offered credit for their many different programs. In sophomore year I enrolled in an architectural class and enjoyed every minute of it. After high school I found an internship at an architectural firm and proceeded to run coffee for everyone. I was going to have to pay for my own college so I chose to continue my architectural education at Front Range Community Collage. I loved some of my classes, especially those in sustainability in architecture but I realized I didn't want to make a career out of architecture.
I spent several years in different retail jobs and gained lots of customer service experience. At some point I took a Wilton Cake Decorating course at Michael's and I fell in love with cakes. I started looking for jobs in pastry. I got turned down for all of them due to not having pastry experience already.
The closest job I could find was at Breadworks working in their coffee bar. I proved myself as a good employee and they gave me a chance in their pastry kitchen. I made all sorts of things from cookies and muffins, to pastry cream, to croissants. I loved every minute of it and learned so much from my time. I wanted to expand my skills and try a more high volume kitchen so I got a job at Wholefoods in their bakery department. I've done many different jobs at Wholefoods mostly in production and decided that the next step was to go to pastry school.
I searched around for culinary schools in the area and found Auguste Escoffier. I feel like I've learned so much at school and expanded my knowledge of pastry and the pastry arts. Going to school has only strengthened my resolve to become the best cake decorator I can be.
To further that goal and finish up my Pastry Certificate I got myself a two month internship at the Sugar Plum Cake Shop in Paris, France. There I spent my time focusing on improving my cake decorating technique and learning the tricks of the trade so I could go back to the US with the skills I needed to start my career as a high end cake decorator. I documented my time there in a blog which you can check out here (http://mikailariehm.blogspot.com/).
I came back to Colorado and easily found a job back working for Wholefoods but this time as a full fledged cake decorator. I have spent the last few years there improving my speed and elevating the decor of their cakes but I am always looking for new opportunities to expand my skills and find bakeries that encourage my learning and creativity. If you want to know more about me as a person check out my Facebook or read the blog I run of all my cool cosplay and craft projects (http://mycrazycraftlife.blogspot.com/).
In high school I felt pressured to choose a career and my school had a program with Boulder Tech school that offered credit for their many different programs. In sophomore year I enrolled in an architectural class and enjoyed every minute of it. After high school I found an internship at an architectural firm and proceeded to run coffee for everyone. I was going to have to pay for my own college so I chose to continue my architectural education at Front Range Community Collage. I loved some of my classes, especially those in sustainability in architecture but I realized I didn't want to make a career out of architecture.
I spent several years in different retail jobs and gained lots of customer service experience. At some point I took a Wilton Cake Decorating course at Michael's and I fell in love with cakes. I started looking for jobs in pastry. I got turned down for all of them due to not having pastry experience already.
The closest job I could find was at Breadworks working in their coffee bar. I proved myself as a good employee and they gave me a chance in their pastry kitchen. I made all sorts of things from cookies and muffins, to pastry cream, to croissants. I loved every minute of it and learned so much from my time. I wanted to expand my skills and try a more high volume kitchen so I got a job at Wholefoods in their bakery department. I've done many different jobs at Wholefoods mostly in production and decided that the next step was to go to pastry school.
I searched around for culinary schools in the area and found Auguste Escoffier. I feel like I've learned so much at school and expanded my knowledge of pastry and the pastry arts. Going to school has only strengthened my resolve to become the best cake decorator I can be.
To further that goal and finish up my Pastry Certificate I got myself a two month internship at the Sugar Plum Cake Shop in Paris, France. There I spent my time focusing on improving my cake decorating technique and learning the tricks of the trade so I could go back to the US with the skills I needed to start my career as a high end cake decorator. I documented my time there in a blog which you can check out here (http://mikailariehm.blogspot.com/).
I came back to Colorado and easily found a job back working for Wholefoods but this time as a full fledged cake decorator. I have spent the last few years there improving my speed and elevating the decor of their cakes but I am always looking for new opportunities to expand my skills and find bakeries that encourage my learning and creativity. If you want to know more about me as a person check out my Facebook or read the blog I run of all my cool cosplay and craft projects (http://mycrazycraftlife.blogspot.com/).