Dancakes Owner/Artist – Dana Baldus (St. Louis, MO)

Dana Baldus
Co-Owner/Artist/Social Media
Saint Louis, MO

There was a time, not too long ago, that I thought I was going to college. Ha.

After graduating high school in 2016, I decided to take a gap year to make a more serious decision about where I wanted to go to college and to make money by getting a few jobs in town. A few months after the start of my gap year (wasting my life away scrolling on Instagram) I saw my first pancake art video, posted by Dancakes. I was immediately impressed and intrigued by the medium, and took it as a challenge.

After binge-watching enough videos to understand how it was done, I gathered equipment and tried it for myself. I posted my attempts online; to my surprise they saw what I had made and sent me a message about how they liked my art and if they could ask me a few questions. It turned out that I was a perfect candidate to be an employee: I was looking for work, not tied down to school, I was an artist, I had tried pancake art with decent results, and I was a mere six hour drive from St. Louis, where they were based.

As baffled as I was by the proposition my parents didn’t seem to see the strangeness in all this and encouraged me to go down for a job interview. We did, and it was part time work for a few months, before I got a call in February, my laptop literally open to browse college options. Dan presented me an ultimatum: You can go to college and work part-time for the company, continuing to do events on the side, or you can move to Saint Louis to be a full-time, professional pancake artist, traveling around the country and possibly the world making art for people. I had two weeks to think about it, and in the end, I made one of the strangest decisions of my life: to go along with it.

Now I get to fly to new cities frequently, have free access to incredible events, have huge exposure for my artwork, and have met and worked with some amazing people and even some personal idols.

I’m still confused as to the direction my life has gone in the last year or so, but I’m loving every unorthodox second of it.

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  Featured Pancake Art – Beast – Last Chance To Get It! by Dana Baldus (09/15/2020) Posted In: Featured Pancakes

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  Featured Pancake Art – Pokemon Original Starters Pancake Art – FOR SALE! 🍃🔥💧 by Dana Baldus (08/17/2020) Posted In: Featured Pancakes

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  August Dancakes Class – Wild Animals by Dana Baldus (08/14/2020) Want to learn Pancake Art from the master himself? Well, we are thrilled to announce that we will be holding another online class! In this livestreamed class, will teach you the steps to making gorgeous, edible works of art, including a pancake of a tiger, an elephant, a dolphin, and a parrot! No need to […] Posted In: Dancakes Updates

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  An Update On Dancakes vs. Mass Chaos by Dana Baldus (07/19/2020) I’m gonna be honest with you, things have been rough here at Dancakes. While we continue to chug along, weeks past laying out a new rough game plan, we still are adjusting to ongoing tumult. In less than five months, we have gone from being a travelling events company that does content mostly on the […] Posted In: Dancakes Updates

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  Featured Pancake Art – Beast (Prince Adam) from Beauty and the Beast by Dana Baldus (07/16/2020) Posted In: Featured Pancakes

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  Featured Pancake Art – Galaxy Kitten by Dana Baldus (07/10/2020) Posted In: Featured Pancakes

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  The Making of The Office Pancake Art by Dana Baldus (03/14/2020) Running Dancakes is a real clusterheck of a job. We’re a small company trying to do a lot of things, and  as most small business owners know that means we’re all wearing as many hats as possible to help us move forward and continue growing (social media, web content, filming/editing videos, etc, we do it […] Posted In: Dancakes Stories

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  A Venture Into The Stars by Dana Baldus (09/09/2019)   Hey all! Dana here (I’m in the middle)! I thought I’d write a little bit about our recent travel, if y’all would entertain me~ (Originally written January 26th, 2019) First off, I’d like to give credit to Ben (mruncredible.com ) for this FANTASTIC shot of us (him, Dan, and I) near Chaco Canyon in New […] Posted In: Dancakes Stories

What's the weirdest request you've ever gotten?

Probably any of them. I mean, it’s a pancake. Either that or the Dr. Phil MnM.

Are there any things you still struggle with in pancake art?

Portraits. Always portraits. There are 7.5 billion of us, of course features and their placement are going to be extremely touchy.

What's your favorite breakfast restaurant?

IHOP is my dad.

What's the coolest place you've traveled to?

I really enjoy anytime we get to go to Raleigh, NC! It’s such a lovely area. Just so idyllic and wonderful almost year round, from what I’ve gathered.

Are your pancakes edible?

Always. If we didn’t want to use edible pancake batter with edible dyes, we’d just paint.

Pineapple on pizza?

Always.