Dana “Sugar Daddy” Herbert, Pastry Chef
Desserts By Dana

Delaware’s King of Cake
Dana Herbert resides in Bear, Delaware which has become home for his custom cakes and sugar artistry at DESSERTS BY DANA. Chef Herbert’s lives and breathes in the sweet and artistic world of the pastry arts where flavor and color come to life in his wonderful wedding cakes, sugar sculptures, and custom cakes for all occasions. Dana has a unique ability to combine cakes and sugar art into one of a kind cake that depicts exactly what his customers want. Dana is an expert sugar artist with lots of names. He’s known as “The Sugar Daddy” because of his work with pulled and blown sugar. He’s called “The King of Cakes” because his six-year-old business, “Desserts by Dana,” is so successful in Delaware. In fact, this pastry chef from Johnson and Wales was recently featured in a four-page spread in American Cake Decorating Magazine. Chef Herbert has done cakes for famous Jazz musician Najee (daughter’s wedding), Marriott, Sysco, Philadelphia International Airport, HSBC, many organizations at University of Delaware, and the list goes on. Recently Chef Herbert has been featured on WEtv for Wedding Cake Wars, and TLC’s Ultimate Cake Off.

Dana is a 1998 graduate of the University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management. It was evident that he was hit by the “hospitality bug”. Chef Herbert also was involved very heavily in the National Society of Minorities in Hospitality (NSMH), serving as the chapter president and eventually the National Chairperson for the organization.

After graduating from the University of Delaware, Chef Herbert continued his education at Johnson and Wales University where he completed a second Bachelor in Culinary Arts and an additional Associates of Arts in Pastry. While in Rhode Island he worked for the University, a private country club, and at the Four Seasons Boston. After leaving Johnson and Wales University, Chef Herbert worked for Marriott for a number of years with his final position being the Pastry Chef of the Philadelphia Downtown Marriott. During his time he had the unique opportunity of being the Pastry Chef for the 2006 American Culinary Federation National Convention and cooking for the Philadelphia Chapter of the Chaine Des Rotisseurs. Currently he is the Head Chef at the Delaware River and Bay Authority in New Castle as well. Dana is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. (Wilmington alumni Chapter), the International Cake Exploration Society (ICES) and the American Culinary Federation.

Chef Herbert loves to create custom wedding cakes and sugar art. Herbert creates the showpieces for weddings and private events. While attending culinary school in Rhode Island, Herbert was drawn into the specialized world of pastry arts, where gum paste, pastillage and PVC tubing are part of the accoutrement.

"I found myself doing all the artsy stuff that a lot of people didn't want to touch," Herbert says. "Something kept calling me to the pastry side."

Sugar sculptures can be more delicate than single-pane glass, so it's taken years for Herbert to master the complicated relationship between sugar and temperature. An average showpiece takes eight painstaking hours to complete. Herbert made a 6-foot sugar flower arrangement last year for the Philadelphia Flower Show, a Philly sports-themed piece for ESPN, sculptures for the Paris Gourmet and Cacao Noel Pastry Exhibition, and one pretty sharp Delaware-themed masterpiece.

Chef Herbert has been on Essence.com, Chef Magazine.com and in Delaware Today, Mail Box News, University of Delaware Alumni Spotlight, Kappa Journal, The Wilmington News Journal, Bear Flier, and other newspaper and magazines. He was also be featured in a section of American Cake Decorating Magazine. Desserts by Dana has also been selected for the 2008 and 2009 Best of Bear Award in the Wedding Supplies category by the U.S. Local Business Association (USLBA).