The story goes like this...

It all started with the "work-weekend". When I was growing up, my parents would schedule an entire Saturday and Sunday that would be dedicated to outdoor chores. Mostly, it consisted of a great deal of yard work, tilling the dirt around flowering plants, trimming all the trees and hedges, and then sweeping and hauling it all into a huge yellow bin parked in the driveway. I would participate during the first day, but would inevitably be asked by my mom to bake something for dessert for Sunday dinner. Early Sunday afternoon, I would put down my rake, take off my gloves, and hand them over to my sister, who would soon be climbing up a ladder onto the roof to help clean out the gutters. At first, I was just happy to get out of the clean up, but soon I found great joy and happiness during those afternoons in the kitchen. It didn't matter if I was baking from a mix (Duncan Hines Brownies!) or trying a new recipe from scratch...it was creative and fun, and the result made my family very happy.

As a young adult, I continued to create cakes for friends and family, immersed myself in professional baking courses at The California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, and later studied the art of sugarpaste flowers with Scott Woolley, Colette Peters and Nicholas Lodge. And while my first career training Assistance Dogs steered me down a different path for 15 years, I knew the time would eventually come to follow my dreams of cake.

You have found me in the early stages of the development process...brainstorming, making lists, choosing a business name (done!), creating a website (no, first a blog!), writing the business plan (I should start!), marketing, networking, taking photos, trying recipes, creating new designs, practicing my craft and showing it to as many people who are willing to look! It certainly is very exciting, and a bit scary at the same time. This blog is dedicated to my experiences in the world of sugarcraft and beautiful cakes, and my goal is to capture and share the entire adventure!

So, I'll start at the beginning and post a photo that instigated this whole thing! First up is the little fondant cake that quickly became a favorite. The "springtime cake" created for a baby shower...pale green blades of grass and delicate blossoms topped with a big pink bow: