(deep breath)
Hi, my name is Lauren Sadler
(Eh! Eh! Not too shabby of a beginning, right? right?)
I am not a professional baker.
Yes, you read that right. I have never been to culinary arts school, I've never taken a Wilton's class from Hobby Lobby...I've never even bought a book on how to bake cakes! But you should invest in my stuff! :D
Haha, no, but seriously, I really am no professional, nor do I try to come off as one. I've always enjoyed baking. I remember being younger and attempting my first real layered cake for my Mom's birthday. I iced it WAY too soon when it was hot, stacked it when it was hot...it looked like an earthquake had taken over what was supposed to be the most beautiful thing my Mom had seen. The icing all melted off and was more of a glaze. So what did I do? Covered the whole thing in Cool Whip. Yep, not even kidding. It was....hideous. I didn't even want to give it to her. But, to my surprise...everyone LOVED it! It tasted REALLY good! (Not kidding, it really did!) I didn't bake much during my childhood, but I definitely enjoyed watching my Mom make cakes and practice making pretty icing flowers that I wanted to eat whole (blegh!). It wasn't until I began making really good cupcakes that I discovered that hey! Not only should what I'm making taste good, but it should look good, too! I decided right then that I wanted to learn the secrets of the cake decorating world. I wanted to know how to layer cakes so they looked even. I wanted to learn how bakeries got icing to be paper smooth. I wanted to know it all! So did I enroll in a class? Ask my Mom? Nope....I went to YouTube :D
Two weeks later, I was volunteering to make my little sister, Marisa's 11th birthday cake. But it wasn't just ANY birthday cake...it was a 3 tiered, topsy turvy, carved, fondant, zebra print cake. (I might have been a little over my head. Just a little) This is what the cake was supposed to look like:
Pretty fancy, huh? :)
Well...I YouTubed and YouTubed and YouTubed until I thought I could be the next Ace of Cakes. I spent 3 long days, and long nights till 1 am on this cake. I made the fondant by hand and my hands looked like I had dipped them in black ink and written letters to Santa with them after coloring it black. I was...exhausted! This was the final result: (mind you, it was only supposed to feed 4 or 5 or so)
Not too bad, I didn't think. I wasn't completely proud of it, but I didn't want to run over it with the car, either. But, over the past couple of years, I've managed to make a few more cakes, watch a ton few more YouTube videos, and learned a few shortcuts on how to effectively make a very beautiful cake that not only looks good, but that people actually want more of!
Now granted, I could try to find a job at a bakery that charges $100+ or more for a easy sheet cake (!!!!) and make okay money ripping good people off. But that's not what I want to do. More than I want to make cakes and cupcakes and goodies...I want to be at home with my kids. I can't imagine working all day and them being in a daycare till dinner time. This is the opportunity I've been praying for...the opportunity GOD gave me. I asked for a stay at home Mom job that I actually enjoyed, and he's given me an open door.
Well here I go-a-runnin!
I hope I haven't bored you all too much, I just wanted to give a short background of my lack of baking experience and why I'm doing this now. Thank you for stopping by, hope to see you again!
LS
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