Vinnie DiNatale stands with his winning Death by Chocolate cake at the Delaware State Fair
At just 16 years old, Vincent “Vinnie” DiNatale is already making a name for himself in the baking industry. The owner of DiNatale Desserts, the 11th grader is also an accomplished figure skater, getting his schooling online so that he can skate during the day.
“I started baking during COVID when everything shut down,” DiNatale said. “My skating rink closed so I started baking for fun and started taking Zoom classes to learn how to bake new and harder things.”
DiNatale decided to turn his baking passion into a business when a friend asked him to make her brother’s birthday cake and offered to pay him for it. From there, his mother, Lori Morgan, who is a graduate of Milford High School, posted it on Facebook and DiNatale explained that people just kept ordering.
“I think the best part of baking for me is how it is fun to experiment with different flavors and come up with cool new recipes,” DiNatale said. “I also like how it is art kind of, like when I get to decorate a cake. My biggest challenge has just been organization. Making sure I have time to bake everything and making sure I don’t take too many orders for one day and making sure I have all the ingredients. Because when I took my first Thanksgiving orders, I took way too many orders and was up for two days straight just baking with no sleep at all.”
Ice skating has helped him in this endeavor as it taught DiNatale to be precise. Skaters have “like 10 things to do at once,” DiNatale explained, and they all have to be perfect or things can go very wrong, so that has helped him in his baking business.
“I do want to do this as a career,” DiNatale said. “I enjoy it a lot and think I am also kinda good at it, but I am just keeping an open mind right now.”
DiNatale entered several baked items in the Delaware State Fair competitions and came away with several awards. His Death by Chocolate Oreo cake won the Grand Prize. He also took first place in the Decorated Cake any Theme and the Decorated Birthday Cake categories. His fluffernutter brownies took second place in the kids competition while his sweet potato cupcakes took third place in another competition. Another of his chocolate cakes got the Judge’s Award for Most Outstanding Entry in the Cakes and Cheesecakes category.
Orders for items available from DiNatale desserts can be placed by reaching out on Facebook or through Facebook messenger by searching for DiNatale Desserts.
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