Cake Events Interview

By Melissa Johnson on November 22, 2011 in Exclusive, Extra, Interviews, Uncategorized

Meet the lovely Becca Gorski, Editor & Founder of CAKE. CAKE. Originally founded as Birthday Girl in March 2009, CAKE. is an expansion of the blog into a modern event + design resource. Find out Becca’s favorite places to eat dessert in San Francisco, what inspired her to launch her blog, and so much more.

Cake offers a variety of services to the community; graphic design, event styling, inspiration boards, plus a prop shop on the way. How did all of this begin? Inspiration to launch my original blog (Birthday Girl) came in 2009 after planning my wedding and 30th birthday party. It struck me that there wasn’t much visual inspiration available online for anything other than weddings. At the time I had no idea it would grow beyond my personal musings on birthday ideas into a known resource for parties and event inspiration. As I began working on more of my own designs and styling parties, the passion for this work has continued to grow… I’m excited to expand the blog into a small business, and in time I hope to be able to make it a full time career.

Cake. is based in Oakland, California which is just a skip and a hop away from San Francisco. Which cupcake shops & bakeries are your favorite? Truthfully, I’m more of an ice cream connoisseur (Ici in Berkeley is my personal favorite), but as far as cupcakes go, for ambiance and charm the original Miette in Hayes Valley is an absolute can’t miss. For unique + delicious flavors I always hit up the Cupkates truck when I happen to see it. And though my friend Michele of Cakewalk Baking doesn’t have a store front, she does custom orders and is always my go-to for party treats.

During your childhood, did you always enjoy attending parties? But of course! Birthdays were a big deal in my house growing up… I still remember my Care Bears party and Shira- Princess of Power birthday among others. Even though times and styles have changed tremendously since my childhood of the 80s, my parents helped instill the joy and significance of celebrating birthdays, along with a creativity and love of pretty things that shaped my love for parties and design today.

How did you select your 4 contributing editors? I wanted to showcase bloggers who offer different styles from my own, but that work within the range of projects I showcase , namely… party decor, dessert recipes and graphic design. Each of these women is someone that I admire for her unique creative style and that I can trust to offer quality content. Their posts have been a huge hit and I’m grateful to them for sharing their work on a regular basis.

What do you find most challenging about blogging about your topic? Finding time to write a quality post. There is a seemingly endless amount of content out there and I’m never at a lack for ideas, but actually editing photos and working them into a thoughtful post is surprisingly time consuming. I often only have an hour or two in the evenings to focus on the blog, and it’s frustrating that I often can’t follow through in the detail I’d like to.

Which blog post / project is your favorite? (please include link also) There is lots of great party inspiration in the Cake. archives, but I worked so hard on my daughter’s 1st birthday this summer that I think it deserves a mention. I broke it up into 5 separate posts which you can find here: Take 1, Take 2, Take 3, Take 4, Take 5- Action!

What is your all time favorite dessert recipe? Gotta go with a classic… chocolate chip cookies. There is just something so comforting about baking (and eating) warm homemade cookies. This recipe from Smitten Kitchen is my recent favorite. It produces the most moist, chewy cookies… I’ve never baked a bad batch.

Any exciting upcoming news for Cake.? I hope so… my goal for the 1st of the year is to open an Esty shop that features my graphic design work. I like to believe I have unique style that will set itself apart from the other printable offerings out there. It’s something I should have done ages ago, but it’s taken a long time to build up a portfolio that I can be proud of. I’ll be offering an option for custom work as well and I’m excited to see where it goes. Now it’s just a matter of photographing everything and getting the items posted… be on the look out for the announcement after the holidays!