I grew up in a strictly vegan, sugar-free household. No candy. No dessert. Sugar = bad. So naturally… sugar became my obsession.
My elementary friends would often sneak cookies to me at lunch or leave cans of soda underneath my porch. Later on while my teen friends were smoking cigarettes and rebelling with parties, I was hiding bags of sugar in my room so I could bake when my parents left town.
I earned my business degree and worked as the Office & HR manager for an amazing local company for almost ten years. I truly loved that job, and I quickly learned that a good way to earn my boss and coworkers' favor was by bringing homemade treats into the office. Seven years in, my boss gave me a KitchenAid mixer as a thank-you for these treats. Shortly after, I signed up for a Wilton cake decorating class...
I mostly just needed an excuse to use the mixer.
There was no going back after that!
I fell hopelessly, madly in love with baking and turning sugar into art. I started taking classes anywhere I could find them. Local catering companies, culinary demos, William Sonoma… if someone was teaching, I wanted to learn. Eventually, I applied to culinary school.
Culinary school was a full-time job on top of my full-time job. I was still working at the office to pay tuition and rent, while also putting in 30+ hours a week between a restaurant and bakery to complete internship hours. Which basically means… I didn’t sleep for two years.
During my final year of school I married a Coast Guard pilot, and not long after that, we found out our first baby was on the way. I knew that juggling school, internships and multiple jobs, all while growing a tiny human could be mental breakdown material. One had to go.
So I quit my beloved office job, waddled my way around the restaurant and somehow made it to the end of culinary school. Pre-labor started during finals week, and I gave birth to my daughter just a few days later.
I absolutely LOVED being a mama.
But if I’m being honest, being home with one tiny baby wasn’t quite enough to keep my workaholic brain occupied.
So one day, I decided to make a birthday cake for a friend.
The next day I had five more cake orders. That’s how Bakermama was born.
Two more babies, two cross-country moves and 15 years later, I still genuinely love what I do. Whether I’m creating a wedding cake, celebrating a first birthday, a hundredth birthday, or simply helping someone satisfy a sugar craving, I get to be part of some of life’s sweetest moments.
And that’s something I’ll never take for granted.
Thank you so much for supporting this little dream of mine — and for letting me do what I love most (while eating it too).
