Cinnamon swirl, Hawaiian salted caramel and raspberry cupcakes with flaky rice krispies, white chocolate frosting and cream cheese icing. Where do these come from?

Behold self-taught baking and pastry chef, Catherine “Cat” Torres, who crafts all the desserts every day. Rather than studying for a pastry or baking degree, Torres received a culinary arts degree from Johnson & Wales University in May 2013. She was helping with savory food preparation until five months ago when executive chef Steve Martin decided to improve the dessert selection. Since then, she learned to bake and make pastries on her own.

Torres arrives at the kitchen every morning at 7:30 a.m. and begins to make desserts—usually 160 cupcakes as well as five other desserts. As for the flavors of the day, Torres spontaneously picks or uses what is available in the kitchen that day.

“I go what I’m feeling that day, [and] I don’t write a menu of what I’m going to do.” she said. “I kind of just get in my zone and figure it out that day. If it’s really hot outside, I’ll do a light cupcake. If I’m feeling chocolatey, then I’m going to make a chocolate cupcake. If I’m feeling like I want to make a surprise then I’ll put something in the middle.”

Torres transforms ideas into cupcakes using recipes blended from a variety of sources.

“Every single [cupcake] to me is my little artwork,” she said. “This is my design; this is the picture I had in my head for this one cupcake.”

She plans to “step it up” next year in terms of her baked goods to create more diverse desserts such as cake pops.

The Instagram had its humble beginnings as an idea contemplated between a group of faculty members casually conversing at a birthday party. After that party, assistant director of instructional technology Diane Main created the “harkercupcakes” Instagram, which was soon followed by a Twitter account and blog of the same name.

The social media centered on Harker desserts features pictures, tweets, and blog posts of Torres’ cupcakes.

“The idea was that it was supposed to be a shared Instagram account that we all contributed to, but nobody else wanted to actually put the pictures up,” Main said. “I didn’t want it to be all me, but it certainly has turned out to be me who does posts and updates.”

Main updates the social media accounts at her own leisure, occasionally posting pictures of foods other than cupcakes. She plans to broaden the scope of the social media platform by inviting students to contribute to the Instagram by sending in pictures themselves.

“It’s a fun little part of our school culture that a lot of places don’t have. It’s a way of just appreciating something that’s an everyday thing here,” she said.

Main sees the potential for someone to create social media based on Harker food in the future, but continuing into next year, she will mostly pay attention to working more regularly with the dessert Instagram.

“The kitchen staff who put the desserts out have really appreciated it and thought it was a lot of fun and nice,” she said. “I’d like to continue doing it next year and be a little more formal about it.”

Gallery • 3 Photos

Kshithjia Mulam

Catherine "Cat" Torres meticulously ices her latest batch of cupcakes. She and Dian Main maintain the Instagram account of "harkercupcakes."

This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on May 16, 2014.