[citation needed] Cauffiel began her career in New York, where she appeared in various Off-Broadway and regional theater productions.

Her credits include 1001 Nights, City of Angels, Antigone, Assassins, Cowboy Mouth, Cabaret, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Company, Baby, Music Man, Shoppers Carried by Escalators, and Grand Hotel.

She then had a supporting role in the 2006 film adaptation of Carl Hiaasen's novel Hoot, playing both a young actress and the elderly pancake maker Mother Paula.

Following a nearly two-year break from acting, Cauffiel was cast as Amy Clayton, a former Olympic figure skater who agrees to coach a teenage girl, in the Hallmark Channel television film Ice Dreams.

[4] Cauffiel performed live in Dharamshala, India, and contributed to the album Shanti by Snatam Kaur and Grateful Ganesh by Guruganesh Singh Khalsa.