Miller really takes the cake

April 7, 2008

By Kelsey BeltrameaTHE DAILY IOWAN

She was tidying her cozyCroatian apartment one Satur-day morning when the phonerang.

“We have a message for you,”the caller told Marina Vujnovic.“If you continue writing likeyou write, something is going tohappen to you. We will breakyour legs.”

The UI grad-uate researcha s s i s t a n trememberedher response,asshe sipped hersingle cappuc-cino in theAdler Journal-ism Building.

“I told him,‘Thanks for letting me know. Ihave to continue vacuumingnow.’ ”

Vujnovic, 33, grew up nearZagreb, Croatia, during the

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Mission CreekrecapWe’re exhausted from themassive amount of rockbrought to Iowa City (andthe Quad Cities) this pastextended weekend, but we’rethrilled to swap stories.Arts & Culture, 11A

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THE INDEPENDENT DAILY NEWSPAPER FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA COMMUNITY SINCE 1868

Iowa pitcherspounded in 13-runlossThe Hawkeye pitching stafftook a beating at Banks Fieldon Sunday as Iowa droppedthe weekend finale toPurdue, 16-3. Sports, 1B

Golfers hitHoosier links The Iowa women’s golf teamstarts competition at theIndiana Invitational today,hoping to trade birdies withseven Big Ten teams.Sports, 1B

Can we build it?Volunteers for a local charitybuild structures out of cansand nonperishable fooditems, including one ofMuppets character Beaker.City, 2A

Chez IMUcrowned culinarycookoff championBattles raged at the UI’s firstIron Chef competition onApril 4 between several east-ern Iowa kitchens.Campus, 4A

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�54 12 C 39 4 C

Mostly sunny, briskwinds, turning cloudywith a 50% chance of

rain in the evening.

Daily updatesNow check back at dailyiowan.com during the day for the latest newson the UI and Iowa City.

Today’s webcast• Weekend assaults• Iron Chef competition• Baseball loses to Purdue

Daily Iowan TVTo watch Daily Iowan TV, go online at dailyiowan.comor tune into UITV. The 15-minute newscast is onSunday through Thursday at 9:30 and 10:30 p.m., with reruns at 12:30 and1:30 a.m. and 7:45 and 8:45 a.m. the following day.

By Kurtis HiattTHE DAILY IOWAN

Three women reported beingattacked by unknown men thispast weekend, and two of theincidents were just a few hoursapart, Iowa City police havereported.

In the most recent attack, onSunday around 2:45 a.m., awoman said an unknown manentered her residence on the 400block of North Dubuque Street

and assaulted her.Women reporting the other

two attacks said they were walk-ing outside when their assailantsapproached from behind.

In one case, on Sundaybetween midnight and 1 a.m., a

By Brian StewartTHE DAILY IOWAN

The sight of one of Michaelyn Miller’s rainbow cakes couldleave some leprechauns looking for gold.

And over the past 25 years, it has left hundreds of childrenand adults looking for their own tasteof a “rainbow cake” from Cakes byMichaelyn.

Today, Cakes by Michaelyn nolonger generates the colorfuldesserts. Miller, 57, retired in 2005after battling two bouts of cancer innearly 10 years.

But the history behind Cakes byMichaelyn dates back nearly threedecades.

Miller began actively baking while in Germany with herhusband, who was stationed there in the Army. After return-ing to America in 1982, the rainbow cake was conceived.

“A girlfriend and I were canning together, and she hadshown me some crazy cupcakes that she had made, and Isaid, ‘We could elaborate on that and do all the colors of God’srainbow,’ ” Miller said as she prepared a 13-by-9-inch versionof the vibrant dessert. “I always promised when I reallyretired, I would divulge how rainbow cake was done.”

Which is what she did this weekend.Miller’s recipe begins with two boxes of Betty Crocker

white cake mix — she insists that Betty Crocker mix is theonly brand that will make the cake taste right.

By Olivia MoranTHE DAILY IOWAN

Iowa Gov. Chet Culverannounced on April 4 that UIgraduate Judge David Bakerwill replace retiring JusticeJerry Larson in the IowaSupreme Court.

Baker, whoreceived anundergraduatedegree in soci-ology from theUI in 1975 anda UI law degreein 1979, willtake over forLarson whenhe retires onMay 17.

The 17 applicants for theposition were announced onFeb. 25, eight of whom are grad-uates of the UI. On March 7,Cedar Rapids attorney ConnieAlt, Baker, and Davenport

Downtown assaultsTo learn more about thisweekend’s assaults, check out

Daily Iowan TV on dailyiowan.com.

Vujnovicgraduate student

BakerCourt of Appeals

Phoebe Webb/The Daily IowanMichaelyn Miller surveys colorful bowls of cake batter on April 2. Miller baked the cakes at her store, Cakes by Michaelyn, until retiring in 2005.

Vujnovic’s storyCheck out an audio slide showand a Daily Iowan TV report onMarina Vujnovic’s work and lifeon dailyiowan.com.

3 assaults reportedCrime tends to increase when weather

is more favorable, officials said.

SEE ASSAULTS, 5A

A voicefrom

Croatia

SEE VUJNOVIC, 3A

Miller really takes the cakeFor the first time in print,

Michaelyn Miller shares her recipefor ‘rainbow cake’ — a secret keptfor more than 25 years — and thestory behind Cakes by Michaelyn.

SEE CAKE, 5A

BakernewIowa

justice

SEE BAKER, 5A

The making of arainbow cake

Visit dailyiowan.com,for an photo slideshow and video

coverage of the rainbow-cakeprocess.

Carli Schultz/The Daily Iowan

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The batter is kicked up withextra vanilla and almondextracts — one of Miller’ssecrets.

Then, the rainbow begins.Miller divides the batter into

six bowls, mixing each with acolor — sky blue, orange, leafgreen, violet, lemon yellow, andpink.

“There’s no rhyme or reason,no perfection,” Miller said, gen-tly layering the colors into agreased pan. “You don’t have tomake any sense of it.”

The end result is a Cakes byMichaelyn rainbow cake — eachhued batter mingling next tothe others but never mixing orfading, creating a distinct colorspectrum.

The last 25 years of Miller’slife have been some of the mostcolorful, churning out rainbowcakes for devotees nationwide.

“I have had cakes picked upone day and be handed off at theDubuque airport, at ChicagoO’Hare, at JFK, at Boston, andend up in Maine for supper,” shesaid.

On average, Cakes byMichaelyn mixed up 3,000batches of batter annually.

When Miller retired, her col-lection of cake pans numberedmore than 750. She ownedevery pan ever made by cakesupply company Wilton, savetwo Canadian molds.

But cake pans never limitedthe creativity of the Millers —Michaelyn, husband Dale, anddaughter Katherine.

Miller boasts about her mostinteresting cakes — an airplanecake “taking off ” from a basecake at a 30-degree angle, athree-dimensional 36-inch longby 20-inch tall cruise ship, and,of course, the “adult cakes”inevitably ordered for bachelorand bachelorette parties.

Corporate agreements —including a long-lasting con-tract with the Iowa Children’sMuseum — helped bring evenmore customers to Miller’s

business.“I knew all of our families,”

Miller said about the more than700 regular families. “I knewtheir kids, I knew about whentheir birthdays were.”

When Miller retired in 2005,she passed the business along tothen-customer Hanna Gugliuz-za, who used the rainbow cakerecipe to open North Liberty-based Dreamcoat Cakes.

Dreamcoat Cakes closed itsdoors in January, offering to sellthe recipe to the public. Gugli-uzza could not be reached forfurther comment.

Miller’s daughter, KatherineMiller, could bake and decoratea cake to her mother’s stan-dards by the time she was 8.

“Mom always wanted thepublic and the people who caredto be happy,” Katherine Millersaid. “So it seems to me nowthat there’s this void of the rain-bow cake, we want to just give itout there. There’s no need tokeep it secret any longer.”

And after a quarter-centurycreating customized cakes,Miller said she can’t emphasizeenough the importance of cus-tomer service.

“It doesn’t matter how big of abusiness you are or how small ofa business you are, you alwaysgive back,” she said. “This

community will be good to you,or it can close you down. Ifyou’re not willing to give back,they’re not going to help you getfurther.”

Cakes by Michaelyn was des-tined to be charitable — Millerused to tell her parents thatwhen she grew up she wantedto be a philanthropist. The com-pany gave to various causes,primarily to the Children’s Mir-acle Network.

Miller speaks fondly of herdays running Cakes by Michae-lyn, laughing as she retells sto-ries of laborious cakes.

“If anybody does it from here,I hope they do it because it’sfun, and I hope they do some-thing with it and give back,” shesaid. “Do something for some-body else — that’s what makesyou feel good when it’s all saidand done.”

E-mail DI reporter Brian Stewart at:[email protected]

CAKE CONTINUED FROM 1A

The Daily Iowan - Iowa City, Iowa - Monday, April 7, 2008 - 5A

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Phoebe Webb/The Daily IowanSky blue and violet cake batter is drizzled into a greased pan on April2. Icing bags sit nearby, ready to be used to frost the cake after itcomes out of the oven.

woman told police she waswalking north on the 200 blockof South Lucas Street when aman lifted up her dress, pushedher to the ground, and tried toremove her underwear.

The woman shouted and hit theman,who then fled on foot west.

The victim in the other inci-dent went to the police toreport that she had beenassaulted around 11 p.m. April4 while walking south on the500 block of South Van BurenStreet. Her assailant reported-ly pushed her to the groundand tried to remove her tights.

She shouted and hit theman, who then fled westbetween some buildings.

Iowa City police Sgt. DougHart said some crimes tend toincrease at specific points dur-ing the year.

“Any time the weather getswarmer … you do see moreactivity,” Hart said.

Karla Miller, the executive

director of the Rape-VictimAdvocacy Program, agreedwith Hart, noting that there isgenerally an increase specifi-cally in assaults in more favor-able temperatures.

“When the weather gets nice,there are more people out andabout,” she said. “That’s whatthe offender is looking for.”

Miller said April is a month inwhich assaults are more common.

However, Hart noted, a trioof attacks in one weekend is“fairly uncommon.”

Since September 2006, policehave recorded a slew of attacks— more than 30 — on womenwalking alone in or arounddowntown by unknown men.Authorities haven’t saidwhether any are related. Butpolice are continuing to talkabout the attacks, Hart said.

Each woman who reportedthe weekend attacks gave adescription of her assailant.

In the most recent incident,the woman said her attackerwas a white male in his 30s,between 5-10 and 6 feet tall,

160 pounds, with short darkhair and a goatee. He waswearing a gray long-sleeveshirt with a white T-shirtunderneath and dark jeans.

The woman involved in theother Sunday incident said herassailant is a white male,approximately 5-9 inches witha skinny build and brown hair.He was wearing a dark long-sleeve sweater or shirt and astocking cap.

In the April 5 attack, thewoman described the man as awhite male, roughly 6 feet tall,wearing a hooded sweatshirtand nylon running pants.

Miller said she continues toadvise people to decrease dis-tractions while walking, suchas listening to headphones andtalking on a cell phone. Shesaid everyone should be awareof their surroundings, knowwhere to seek safety if neces-sary, and report assaults topolice as soon as possible fol-lowing an attack.

E-mail DI reporter Kurtis Hiatt at:[email protected]

ASSAULTS CONTINUED FROM 1A

3 tell of assaults A piece of cake history

Court gets new justiceattorney Thomas Waterman werenamed the three finalists for theposition. All three are also gradu-ates of the UI College of Law.

“As a lawyer in Cedar Rapidsand throughout the time he hasspent on the bench, JudgeBaker has demonstrated adeep interest in the lives ofIowans, and I am confidentthat as an Iowa Supreme CourtJustice, he will continue tostand up and protect the rightsof Iowans for years to come,”Culver said in a statement.

Baker, 55, of Cedar Rapids,was appointed to the IowaCourt of Appeals in 2006.Beginning in January 2005, heserved as a judge in the 6thDistrict. Before his appoint-

ment as a judge, he worked inprivate practice for 25 years.

The Iowa Supreme Court“has most certainly been a goalof mine, at least since law schoolor undergraduate,” Baker said.

Larson, who is leaving hisposition because of the mandato-ry retirement age, is the longest-serving justice in the IowaSupreme Court, and he chairedthe latest nomination committee.

He received his bachelor’sdegree from the UI in 1958, andgraduated from the UI Collegeof Law in 1960. He worked as alaw clerk after graduation andwas eventually the ShelbyCounty Attorney before beingappointed as a district judge. Hehas served as an Iowa SupremeCourt justice since 1978.

Noting that all three nomi-nees graduated from the UI,

Baker said Culver had a diffi-cult choice to make. The nomi-nees were required to be a resi-dent of the state, licensed topractice law in Iowa, and ableto serve an initial one-yearterm and one regular eight-year term before turning 72.

Supreme Court justices initiallystand for re-election after one yearand every eight years after that.

Baker said the new positionwill now give him the opportu-nity to work on the administra-tive side of the court, where hesaid there are a number ofinteresting issues.

He added that he doesn’tplan to vie for a position at anational level.

“I’m very satisfied withwhere I am now,” he said.

E-mail DI reporter Olivia Moran at:[email protected]

BAKER CONTINUED FROM 1A

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Miller really takes the cake