Cakes by Michaelyn history
The history behind Cakes by Michaelyn dates back nearly three decades.
Miller began actively baking while in Germany with her husband, who was stationed there in the Army. After returning to America in 1982, the rainbow cake was conceived.
"A girlfriend and I were canning together, and she had shown me some crazy cupcakes that she had made, and I said, 'We could elaborate on that and do all the colors of God's rainbow,' " Miller said as she prepared a 13-by-9-inch version of the vibrant dessert.
The last 25 years of Miller's life have been some of the most colorful, churning out rainbow cakes for devotees nationwide.
"I have had cakes picked up one day and be handed off at the Dubuque airport, at Chicago O'Hare, at JFK, at Boston, and end up in Maine for supper," she said.
On average, Cakes by Michaelyn mixed up 3,000 batches of batter annually.
When Miller retired, her collection of cake pans numbered more than 750. She owned every pan ever made by cake supply company Wilton, save two Canadian molds.
But cake pans never limited the creativity of the Millers - Michaelyn, husband Dale, and daughter Katherine.
Miller boasts about her most interesting cakes - an airplane cake "taking off" from a base cake at a 30-degree angle, a three-dimensional 36-inch long by 20-inch tall cruise ship, and, of course, the "adult cakes" inevitably ordered for bachelor and bachelorette parties.
Today, Cakes by Michaelyn no longer generates the colorful desserts. Miller, 57, retired in 2005 after battling two bouts of cancer in nearly 10 years.
- taken from "Miller Really Takes the Cake"
Brian Stewart - The Daily Iowan - April 6, 2008