Candace Nelson
Encyclopedia
Candace Nelson is a pastry chef
and judge on the television series Cupcake Wars
. She is credited with starting a nationwide cupcake
craze with the opening of her store, Sprinkles Cupcakes
, in 2005.
. Baking runs in her family, as her French-American grandmother was known for the desserts she created at her San Francisco restaurant in the 1930s. Nelson is a graduate of Wesleyan University
(class of 1996) and Tante Marie
's Professional Pastry Program in San Francisco.
Before entering the bakery business, Nelson and her husband, Charles (born 1969), a native of Oklahoma
, worked as investment bankers. After the dot-com bust, Candace decided to focus on pastry
making and opened a custom cake business from her home in San Francisco. Later she and Charles moved the business to a former old-fashioned bakery in Los Angeles
and began making only cupcakes.
. Though the bakery business was in a four-year no carb
slump, they sold 2,000 cupcakes the first week. Candace is described as taking a "sophisticated" take on the classic cupcake, using finest quality ingredients like sweet cream butter, pure Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon vanilla and Callebaut chocolate. She also creates offbeat offerings like vegan
and gluten-free
cupcakes and even dog-food
cupcakes. The sleek, minimalistic store was designed by an architect from Vienna
and the logo and packaging were recreated by a former Martha Stewart
employee.
Sprinkles now has 10 locations throughout the United States, with plans to open in 15 more cities including London and Tokyo. The Nelsons also started a traveling "Sprinklesmobile", a Mercedes
Sprinter van designed by Sprinkles architect Andrea Lenardin. In 2007 Candace also developed a line of cupcake mixes which are sold exclusively through her store and Williams-Sonoma
stores in the United States and Canada. Sprinkles fans include Oprah Winfrey
, Blake Lively
, Katie Holmes
, Ryan Seacrest
, Tom Cruise
, Barbra Streisand
, and Serena Williams
.
and a rotating judge, Candace is a judge on the competition series Cupcake Wars
. She has also appeared on The Best Thing I Ever Ate
and has been a judge on Bobby Flay
's Throwdown
show. Nelson also has been featured on television shows, including The Today Show, Nightline
, The Martha Stewart Show, and profiled in People magazine. Her cupcakes have been featured by The Oprah Winfrey Show
, Bon Appetit
magazine, Food & Wine
, The New York Times
and the Los Angeles Times
.
Pastry chef
A pastry chef or pâtissier is a station chef in a professional kitchen, skilled in the making of pastries, desserts, breads and other baked goods...
and judge on the television series Cupcake Wars
Cupcake Wars
Cupcake Wars is a Food Network reality-based competition show hosted by Justin Kredible based on creating unique and professional-style cupcakes that began airing in June 2010. The show is similar to its successful Chopped show in that it starts with 4 contestants who are eliminated one by one in 3...
. She is credited with starting a nationwide cupcake
Cupcake
A cupcake is a small cake designed to serve one person, frequently baked in a small, thin paper or aluminum cup...
craze with the opening of her store, Sprinkles Cupcakes
Sprinkles Cupcakes
Sprinkles Cupcakes is a Beverly Hills, California-based cupcake bakery chain established in 2005. It is considered the first cupcakes-only bakery.- History :...
, in 2005.
Early life
Nelson grew up in IndonesiaIndonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
. Baking runs in her family, as her French-American grandmother was known for the desserts she created at her San Francisco restaurant in the 1930s. Nelson is a graduate of Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
(class of 1996) and Tante Marie
Tante Marie
Tante Marie School of Cookery is a cookery school in Woking, Surrey, England. It is the United Kingdom's oldest independent cookery school, established in 1954 by the cookery writer Iris Syrett. It was the first school in the UK to offer a Cordon Bleu Diploma, which continues to be the backbone of...
's Professional Pastry Program in San Francisco.
Before entering the bakery business, Nelson and her husband, Charles (born 1969), a native of Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
, worked as investment bankers. After the dot-com bust, Candace decided to focus on pastry
Pastry
Pastry is the name given to various kinds of baked products made from ingredients such as flour, sugar, milk, butter, shortening, baking powder and/or eggs. Small cakes, tarts and other sweet baked products are called "pastries."...
making and opened a custom cake business from her home in San Francisco. Later she and Charles moved the business to a former old-fashioned bakery in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and began making only cupcakes.
Cupcake queen
On April 13, 2005, the couple opened Sprinkles Cupcakes, the world's first cupcake bakery, in a 600 square feet (55.7 m²)-shop in Beverly Hills, CaliforniaBeverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
. Though the bakery business was in a four-year no carb
No-carbohydrate diet
A no-carbohydrate diet is described as human carnivorism. It excludes dietary consumption of all carbohydrates and suggests fat as the main source of energy with sufficient protein...
slump, they sold 2,000 cupcakes the first week. Candace is described as taking a "sophisticated" take on the classic cupcake, using finest quality ingredients like sweet cream butter, pure Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon vanilla and Callebaut chocolate. She also creates offbeat offerings like vegan
Veganism
Veganism is the practice of eliminating the use of animal products. Ethical vegans reject the commodity status of animals and the use of animal products for any purpose, while dietary vegans or strict vegetarians eliminate them from their diet only...
and gluten-free
Gluten-free diet
A gluten-free diet is a diet that excludes foods containing gluten. Gluten is a protein found in wheat , barley, rye, malts and triticale. It is used as a food additive in the form of a flavoring, stabilizing or thickening agent, often as "dextrin"...
cupcakes and even dog-food
Dog food
Dog food refers to food specifically intended for consumption by dogs. Though technically omnivorous, dogs exhibit a natural carnivorous bias, have sharp, pointy teeth, and have short gastrointestinal tracts better suited for the consumption of meat...
cupcakes. The sleek, minimalistic store was designed by an architect from Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and the logo and packaging were recreated by a former Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart is an American business magnate, author, magazine publisher, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, and merchandising...
employee.
Sprinkles now has 10 locations throughout the United States, with plans to open in 15 more cities including London and Tokyo. The Nelsons also started a traveling "Sprinklesmobile", a Mercedes
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
Sprinter van designed by Sprinkles architect Andrea Lenardin. In 2007 Candace also developed a line of cupcake mixes which are sold exclusively through her store and Williams-Sonoma
Williams-Sonoma
Williams-Sonoma, Inc. is a high-end American consumer retail company that sells kitchenwares, furniture and linens, as well as other housewares and home furnishings, along with a variety of specialty foods, soaps and lotions...
stores in the United States and Canada. Sprinkles fans include Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
, Blake Lively
Blake Lively
Blake Christina Lively is an American actress and model who stars as Serena van der Woodsen in the television teen drama series Gossip Girl...
, Katie Holmes
Katie Holmes
Katherine Noelle "Katie" Holmes is an American actress who first achieved fame for her role as Joey Potter on The WB television teen drama Dawson's Creek from 1998 to 2003. Her movie roles have included the blockbuster Batman Begins along with art house films such as The Ice Storm and thrillers...
, Ryan Seacrest
Ryan Seacrest
Ryan John Seacrest is an American radio personality, television host, network producer and voice actor. He is the host of On Air with Ryan Seacrest, a nationally syndicated Top 40 radio show that airs on KIIS-FM in Los Angeles and throughout the United States and Canada on Premiere Radio Networks,...
, Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....
, Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
, and Serena Williams
Serena Williams
Serena Jameka Williams is an American professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. The Women's Tennis Association has ranked her world no. 1 in singles on five separate occasions. She became the world no. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002 and regained this ranking for the fifth time on...
.
Television personality
Along with Florian BellangerFlorian Bellanger
Florian Bellanger is a French pastry chef and judge on the Food Network's competition series Cupcake Wars.-Early career:Bellanger grew up in Paris, France and spent much of his free afternoons baking for his family. However, a childhood chocolate allergy prevented him from enjoying sweets and...
and a rotating judge, Candace is a judge on the competition series Cupcake Wars
Cupcake Wars
Cupcake Wars is a Food Network reality-based competition show hosted by Justin Kredible based on creating unique and professional-style cupcakes that began airing in June 2010. The show is similar to its successful Chopped show in that it starts with 4 contestants who are eliminated one by one in 3...
. She has also appeared on The Best Thing I Ever Ate
The Best Thing I Ever Ate
The Best Thing I Ever Ate is a program on the Food Network which premiered on June 22, 2009 . The program originally aired as a one-time special in late 2008...
and has been a judge on Bobby Flay
Bobby Flay
Robert William "Bobby" Flay is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur and reality television personality. He is the owner and executive chef of 12 restaurants: Mesa Grill in Las Vegas, New York City, and the Bahamas ; Bar Americain in New York City and Uncasville, Connecticut; Bobby Flay Steak...
's Throwdown
Throwdown! with Bobby Flay
Throwdown! with Bobby Flay is a Food Network television program in which celebrity chef Bobby Flay challenges cooks renowned for a specific dish or type of cooking to a cook-off of their signature dish....
show. Nelson also has been featured on television shows, including The Today Show, Nightline
Nightline
Nightline, or ABC News Nightline is a late-night news program broadcast by ABC in the United States, and has a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. It airs weeknights, usually for 31 minutes. Created by Roone Arledge, the program featured Ted Koppel as its main...
, The Martha Stewart Show, and profiled in People magazine. Her cupcakes have been featured by The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
, Bon Appetit
Bon Appétit
Bon Appétit describes itself as "a food and entertaining magazine" and is published monthly. Named after the French phrase for "Enjoy your meal", it was started by M. Frank Jones in Kansas City in 1956...
magazine, Food & Wine
Food & Wine
Food & Wine is a monthly magazine published by American Express Publishing. It was founded in 1978 by Ariane and Michael Batterberry. It features recipes, cooking tips, travel information, restaurant reviews, chefs, wine pairings and seasonal/holiday content and has been credited by The New York...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
and the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
.