Baking is my Hero

Thank you for all the support

I am someone who has struggled with anxiety, depression, emotional mood swings, even drastic emotional breakdowns and I have always looked for a healthy solution to help; I discovered baking. I have been baking since I was in middle school, I kind of taught myself how to by watching cooking shows, cooking/baking challenges, searching recipes online, and just experimenting. My mom is someone who loves her sweets after dinner with a cup of coffee, while she watches her shows, so when she discovered my passion for baking, she knew she was set for life, lol. I was a middle schooler with much anxiety, which I didn’t quite understand what that meant (I was too young), I never opened up to my mom about it, I didn’t know how she would take it, so I started looking for things that helped me to cope. My mom didn’t take an interest in cooking or baking until later on in her life, so when I started trying my hand at it, I realized I had a niche. The older I got, the better I got, then I had another reason to perfect my craft; my little brother. He was my guinea pig pretty much for all things culinary, he opened up his pallet when I would create new things, if I didn’t know how to make something better, I would ask him since he was a picky eater (at 19, he still is). My little brother and my mom were two of my biggest supporters in my patisserie journey, they even supported me when I decided to take courses at Le Cordon Bleu; unfortunately, I was paying for school out of pocket, I was working and going to High School, I was later laid off from my job so I couldn’t continue.

The inspiration behind it all

My fascination with baking (and cooking) was so intense that I was glued to the TV when Cake/Cupcake Wars, Ace of Cakes, Cake Boss and Sweet Genius would come on, I would googled recipes of stuff my family would like, created my own recipes, practiced my decorating… I even went as far as opening an at-home business. I created business cards, a website, referral forms, flyers, bake sales and the business did so well while I had it going that it felt so good! It was the best, most accomplished feeling I ever had! But as all good things come to an end, I had to take a break due to finals and graduation, let’s not forget that I got my job back, so I was fully occupied. Unfortunately, I didn’t go back into business, but I continue to bake. Writing and baking go hand in hand, because they are two of my favorite things to do that help to unwind, but baking will be my Forever Love.

The pastry with a purpose

After my attendance with Le Cordon Bleu, I was in school for Business Administration, I wanted to get my certification in Business for when I opened my own bakery. During my time at school, one of our courses was business advertisement; we needed to create a pitch for our dream company and learn how to promote our product; I started a charitable fundraiser for Breast Cancer Awareness bake sale. The school director was quite intrigued with the idea, I unknowing, his mom had passed away a few years back due to breast cancer, so he approved the idea. I baked the cupcakes as shown in the picture, I went to Michael’s for some arts and crafts, grabbed my scissors, pink ribbon, hot glue gun and clips, and made several souvenirs to thank the supporters of this memorable moment. All the proceeds from the fundraiser were going to be donated to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. It went so well that it exceeded the expected goal for my project and I got an A+ in my course. My business admin professor was so pleased with my idea, the class wrote a paper on my project. As much as I enjoy baking for pleasure, I enjoy it more when it is for a cause, it is very rewarding and uplifting to those that it is helping.

Sweet disasters

Baking opens the doors to create things that are whimsical, charming, extraordinary, and imaginative. I am someone who has a big imagination, loves to create stuff out of pure thought and bring it to life. This was my slogan for my business, “Bringing your imagination to life!”. Being able to come up with things on the fly, messing one idea up and coming up with something else that was better, or creating something that was out of the box. The image above was supposed to be a Chocolate Chip Cookie Fruit Basket 🧺, that ended up falling apart in my oven and had to figure out how to reconstruct it. I panicked because it was for one of my coworker’s birthday office potluck and I was in charge of dessert; imagine the pressure! So, I was thinking and thinking like Winnie the Pooh, and it hit me; a deconstructed cookie bowl! Born was the idea in the picture above, out of a disastrous night, came one of the most talked about, most enjoyed food items at the potluck. It was so much appreciated that I had people placing orders of these! What a turn of events!

The Persuader and the Baker

I was doing such an amazing job with my potluck desserts, that one of my colleagues (one of our regional managers at the HerbaLife Headquarters in Gardena CA) offered to promote my baking and got people to place orders while I was working my office job. She was so popular and super persuasive that I would’ve never been able to achieve what I did without her. Lucy was a go-getter, she can sell ice to an Eskimo, so she did! She was my business partner as well as one of my #1 customers, she even helped in providing me Keto recipes; something I knew nothing about. She was the Keto queen and I was the baker, together we conquered the world! Lucy motivated me to get back into the groove of baking as a business, she picked me up when I felt I couldn’t anymore. I was a temp at HerbaLife, so I finished my contract and that was the end of my empire. But continue to bake as a hobby, and enjoy every minute of it!