For any occasion
The Gerbers deliver from San Luis Obispo to the Santa Ynez Valley.
Place online orders for Orcutt Bakery goods by visiting orcuttbakery.com. Call (805) 938-9140 with questions, and see the treats for yourself at 4869 S. Bradley Road, suite 112, in Orcutt.
After Danielle and Shawn Gerber spend hours baking and decorating a cake, they must safely transport it to its destination. For Central Coast parties from Santa Ynez to San Luis Obispo, that often means a scenic barn or vineyard, creating their biggest delivery challenge—the road less traveled.
“We don’t love delivering off paved roads,” Danielle said with a laugh.
She stood behind the counter of her and her husband’s business, Orcutt Bakery, one February afternoon while Shawn was busy in the kitchen making cheesecake. In addition to an array of cheesecakes, their dessert counter also held cupcakes, cookies, lemon bars, and cake pops.
For the past 11 years, the couple has owned and operated Orcutt Bakery, but this is the first time in Danielle’s recent memory that life is back to normal after a battle with breast cancer. The baker wants her community to know that even though she never stopped working, she’s feeling herself again.
“The last couple of years, we’ve just been surviving,” Danielle said. “We’re ready to get back to what we do best.”
Orcutt Bakery is known to create custom cakes for parties and weddings. Shawn is the baker and Danielle decorates. Though cakes now make up a large portion of their business, making cookies was Danielle’s introduction to the industry.
She has early memories baking at her grandmother’s house in Orcutt, a short drive from where she was raised in Nipomo. Danielle baked a lot for her family, too, even bringing cookies to her friends at school. Eventually, the business owner began baking wedding cakes for her friends.
“My grandmother really loved to bake, and so we would have baking days,” Danielle said. “I’d go over and hang out with her, and we’d bake something new. She got to pass on her love of baking to me.”
Now, her grandmother is the one asking for advice.
Danielle took the leap to go back to school and study food science at Allan Hancock College. She and her classmates put their skills to the test during labs held in a kitchen that looked like the set of Top Chef, the baker remembered.
Shawn took culinary classes at Hancock too, and he has always specialized in cooking. His wife said he learned how to bake specifically for their business, having grown tired of working for other people. The art of cooking is different than the science of baking, but Shawn quickly caught on.
“The first wedding cake that he was helping me with, he put powdered sugar instead of flour, so he learned real quick that you have to pay attention,” Danielle said.
The team works together, sometimes spending eight hours on a custom cake. During wedding season, they take as many orders as Shawn and his oven can manage.
“It gets kind of crazy,” Danielle said.
While taste is always the top priority, Danielle has fun decorating the designs by hand. Recently, her more elaborate cake creations have featured themes of Hello Kitty and KPop Demon Hunters, after the hit movie.
The baker also admires the simplicity of “naked” cakes, with the layers exposed, held together ever so slightly with frosting. The aesthetic is fitting for a lot of weddings.
Ahead of the big day, Danielle’s main piece of advice to couples for their cake is that less is more. She sends them home with a tasting flight, suggesting they choose two or three flavors.
The most popular cakes she and Shawn offer are red velvet, chocolate, and, to their surprise, coconut.
“One of my friends from high school was adamant, like, ‘Don’t even put coconut. We’re not doing it,’” Danielle remembered about his tasting. “Then he ordered the whole cake in coconut. He loved it.”
Along with frosted slices, Shawn and Danielle style wedding dessert tables with mini versions of their cookies, cheesecakes, and lemon bars. Sometimes they throw cake pops in the mix, too.
Custom cakes require four or five days’ notice, and wedding cakes are best ordered a few months in advance. Shawn bakes every day, though, constantly stocking the storefront with triple chocolate, carrot, and chocolate strawberry cakes.
Orcutt Bakery’s goods aim to bring joy to everyone—and the bakers literally deliver that joy, preferably on paved roads—whether it’s a wedding day, birthday, or a regular weekday.
Staff Writer Madison White enjoys the bakery’s raspberry cheesecake. Send another slice to mwhite@santamariasun.com.