GAZELLE MAGAZINE Luxury Holiday Issue 2015 | Page 80

CUISINE THE ICING ON THE CAKE Stefani Pollack found her culinary niche By ERIN WILLIAMS When it comes to planning a wedding, there are fewer details that will carry as much weight as what kind of cake is served. The possibilities - from the darkness of the chocolate to the detail of the design - can be endless, and choosing who will do the job can prove for some couples to be just as daunting as how many guests to invite, or what type of music to play for the first dance. Stefani Pollack decided to use an invitation to her friend’s 2007 wedding as an opportunity to teach herself how to make cupcakes for the event - and to her surprise, the couple agreed. “I told them they could pick their three favorite flavors because I wanted to give them a few different options to choose from,” she said. After spending nine months teaching herself how to bake the perfect cupcake, and creating 250 gingerbread latte and soda fountainflavored cupcakes (which received strong praise from guests) for her friend’s wedding, she decided to keep going and learn all about cakes, cookies, pies, and other sweet creations in addition to cupcakes - for which she now has over 200 different recipes. She left her day job as a technical trainer to become a full-time food blogger in 2009, which took the Cupcake Project to the next level. “I was taking time off anyway because my son was just born, and there was no reason to go back to my other job because my blog had become a job,” said Stefanie, who is married to Jonathan, a photographer. They are parents to Myles, who is now in kindergarten. Being her own businesswoman has given her great freedom - and great responsibility. “I’m trying to keep it more like a reasonable workday. “The danger of being able to work from home is that you just work all the time,” she said. “My son is in school from 8 to 3, so I really try to jam as much as I can into those hours so I can spend time with him when he gets home.” 80 She’s worked as a contributor to “Feast” and “Parade” magazines, and AllRecipes.com, has developed recipes for Paula Deen, and most recently, created her own company, Zest Culinary Content where she creates recipes for other brands. “I was so humbled and excited GAZELLE STL