the beginning.

As a little girl I always enjoyed baking. My mother never really did a whole lot of baking, but whenever she was in the kitchen making monkey bread, I would be ecstatic to help! We would also make cookies all the time. I remember, I would often go into the kitchen when my mother wasn't home and try to start baking. I would end up getting flour every where and then leave dishes all over. My mother would come back and be disappointed in my large messes and get mad that I attempted to bake when she wasn't around (I could have burnt the house down!). Once I was 11-12, I started creating baked goods weekly. I would experiment with different cookies. I remember when I was 11 I was so into finding the PERFECT chocolate chip cookie with the right texture, crispy and soft. I would go through all my mothers cook books and try every peanut butter, chocolate chip and other types of cookies and put check marks or "ick" in the books next to certain recipes. For christmas gifts, I made sugar cookies with fancy cutouts and jam in the center, chocolate crinkles, and more. I always had to make sure they looked perfect. Perfectly round, perfect thickness, etc. I would also have fun making pies, kuchen, crepes, cupcakes, gingerbread, cinnamon rolls. I made my mom get out the fryer so we could let grease splatter at us trying to make donuts! (I have never really liked donuts, but i was determined to make them! and make them perfect.) My brothers and dad loved them! Bread was also an interest to me. I would make bread and braid it in different ways and put a nice egg wash on top. I loved the elegance of shiny golden bread.

I would make baked goods weekly and then display them on a gorgeous antique plate all fancy and lay them out perfectly. I thought it was good decoration. I would get mad when my brothers and dad would eat them! I often told them they could only eat the ugly pastries. My dad would always give me a hard time for "decorating" when working with food, putting food on a plate - wether it be baked goods or something I had cooked. I always worried about it looking beautiful on the plate. Chocolate swirled perfectly, creating a beautiful piece . . .

Before I came to school for graphic design, I really looked into Brown College outside of Minneapolis. They have a Culinary program that one can master in just pastry. However I was unsure of leaving South Dakota and the rest of my family went to the same college. So I came to SDSU for Interior Design, then felt like it wasn't really what I wanted. So I switched to Foodservice and Hotel management thinking I would learn what it would take to run a bakery. However, I didn't even continue taking any of the classes, I thought I enjoyed my art classes more - so I switched to graphic design. Living in a house of 5 girls my third year of school, I would find occasions to make pretty little cupcakes. I kept making lots of cupcakes for the next year. Then I decided to make a graduation cake for my boyfriend at the time.. which led to me making a fake wedding cake and then more cakes and more cakes! I developed the PERFECT icing recipe that is just the right texture and not too sweet. Months ago, I had a dessert party with friends and made a couple pies and 3-4 fancy cakes and truffles (which I long to do again soon!). I've experimented with truffles and discovered how to make some amazing cherry truffles!

It's always been about the beauty of pastry. I see the art of pastry and enjoy the pretty picture of pastry goods. Gradually, I am learning the science behind baking and techniques. I continue to find ways to alter recipes and create my own tastes. I enjoy browsing random sites and looking through magazines/books for ideas and figure out how certain things are created. I continue to learn on my own and I enjoy it so much! I love everything about baking. It makes me extremely HAPPY :)

I will start off by sharing a few cakes that I have created! I enjoy using my big cake decorating kit in which I inherited from my great grandmother. I hope to soon master creating flowers! and I still need to find the perfect fondant recipe that actually tastes amazing.