Who Is Melissa from Baking with Melissa in Los Angeles?
Ohhhh hiiiiii! I’m Melissa Randall, the creator and owner of Baking with Melissa! Before Baking with Melissa, There Was a LOT of Performing! I studied theatre in college and spent years performing and entertaining audiences in professional theatres, children’s theatre tours, theme parks, trade shows, at Ringling Bros. Circus and on cruise ships around the world. I also worked as a toy show presenter for Fisher-Price and Mattel toys and became an award-winning public speaker in Toastmasters International.
I Have Been Working with Children for More Than 25 Years
Kids have been a huge part of my world for over half my life! Over the years, I have overseen enrichment programs, taught at summer camps and acting schools, and worked with underprivileged and homeless children and teens. That experience is a HUGE part of what I bring with me to every children’s birthday party I host today.
And Then There Was Baking
Some of my favorite childhood memories are spending time in the kitchen with my mom and grandmother. The kitchen was a place where I felt connected to my family, and those memories stayed with me as I got older. Eventually, the pieces started coming together. I loved teaching and working with Kids. I loved Baking, Performing, Hosting, Entertaining, and Creating connection. Which led me to creating Baking with Melissa back in 2011.
And I started it with exactly zero dollars.
For more than a year, I worked on my website, social media, costumes, recipes and the idea behind my new business without making any money from it. I told people I hosted baking parties and cupcake decorating parties for kids and teens in Los Angeles even though I was still waiting for someone to actually hire me to do one. I just really believed that I would be doing it.
Then one day, a mom found me online. The phone rang. And I booked my very first baking party. I still remember that phone call.
Baking with Melissa Was Never Just About Being a Baker
This is probably the most important part of my story. My background is not culinary school. My background is entertainment, performance, communication, working with children and connecting with an audience. Baking became the vehicle that allowed all of those pieces of my life to come together.
Over the years, I have appeared on the Hallmark Channel, Lifetime Network, KTLA, KCAL and FOX, filmed baking webisodes, hosted cooking shows and appeared at events including LA Cookie Con, the Orange County Fair and Cake Expo. But the work I do most often happens away from a television camera.
It happens in someone’s home, gathered around tables covered with cupcakes, buttercream frosting, candies, sprinkles and fondant. It happens when I walk into a child’s birthday party and spend the next hour or two focused on the person we are there to celebrate and their party guests.
THAT is Baking with Melissa.
Then 2020 Changed Everything
When the world shut down in 2020, the in-person business I had spent years building suddenly had to stop. Baking with Melissa had always meant physically showing up at someone’s home or event in Los Angeles, setting everything up, and hosting the experience in the room with everyone.
So, I took what I had created and figured out how to bring it online.
That decision completely changed the reach of my business. I was no longer limited by how far I could drive from my home in Los Angeles. Suddenly, I could turn on a camera and bake with people in kitchens across the country and around the world. What began as a way to keep doing what I loved during a time when we couldn’t gather in person became an entirely new part of Baking with Melissa.
Since then, I have hosted thousands of virtual baking events for corporate teams, employee engagement programs, client events and celebrations around the world.
The way I was reaching people had changed dramatically, but the heart of what I was doing hadn’t. I was still hosting, entertaining, connecting with people and bringing them together through baking. Now, I could just do it from my kitchen in Los Angeles to theirs…wherever in the world they happened to be.
Looking for a Baking Party in Los Angeles?
Today, Baking with Melissa offers in-home baking birthday parties, cupcake decorating parties, cooking parties and customized Cupcake Challenge parties in Los Angeles and surrounding areas. My Cupcake Challenge experiences are inspired by shows like Cupcake Wars, Nailed It! and Is It Cake?, but without judging, winners or losers. The focus is on creativity, teamwork and FUN!
I also host corporate team-building baking events in Los Angeles and virtual employee engagement baking classes for companies around the world.
So whether you found me while searching for a baking birthday party in Los Angeles, a cupcake decorating party in Los Angeles, a Nailed It birthday party, a Cupcake Wars party, a fun Los Angeles kids birthday party idea, or a corporate team-building baking event, now you know a little bit more about the woman who will be showing up to host it!
And if you would like to read even more about my journey, you can also read my Voyage LA interview.
I’m Melissa, and I would LOVE to bake and celebrate with you! 💗🧁
