Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Start of my baking journey

 Welcome back lovelies!


I hope you all are having a wonderful day and are doing well! In today's blog I'm going to talk to you guys about my start and love for baking. This is a long one...you might want to get cozy and grab snacks. It goes back almost a decade of my life, so let’s dive in…


As I have mentioned in previous blogs, I have been baking since I was 12. My love for it all started when little Madi discovered the infamous show, Cake Boss. I quickly fell in love with the show, the idea of baking, and decorating. If you did know what I was doing it was watching the show, and if you didn’t, it was still watching the show. Couldn’t get me away from the TV. I would watch and brainstorm my own flavors and creations. After getting hooked I started to dabble in baking of my own. I wanted to start with cupcakes because it seemed like a good logical and easy beginner lesson. Little did I know I would become addicted to just making cupcakes. I have done cakes, cookies, brownies, etc, but I always come back to cupcakes. I love the idea of it being personal, simply cute, pretty muffins, and oh so delicious! While watching the show I would pay very close attention to all the details. I would look at how they piped the frosting, the different techniques they would use, and all the tips and tricks. I studied the movement of how to pipe without ever piping for myself. When it came to making the baked goods for myself, I knew exactly how to pipe. It was like I had been doing it for years, and all I did was move my hands the exact same way that I saw Buddy and his crew do. I like to think of it as my calling ;) Now instead of watching baking shows, I was baking what I saw on the shows. I remember just like it was yesterday when I started baking. I would bake 3-4 batches of cupcakes a week, sometimes even on the same day, and I would completely take over the kitchen. Cleaning up was a chore but totally worth it if my cupcakes turned out good! 


In the beginning I would only bake with store bought cake mixes. Some of my recipes involved spicing up the cake mix, but the base was always cake mix. I wasn’t doing baking as a career yet just merely for fun as a hobby. Cake mix was easy to use, and I mainly was concerned about my frosting skills. Let’s be honest, the frosting is what brings the cupcake together and makes it look whole. Even from the beginning I have always made the frosting from scratch. I knew I needed a big batch of frosting to practice with and the store bought icing containers weren’t going to cut it. It was going to take too many of them and too much money. Come to find out after researching a bunch of buttercream recipes, that making your own frosting was cheaper and pretty easy. I would go to school, come home, bake, eat, sleep, and repeat.


Of course when you’re baking 3+ times a week you end up with a ton of cupcakes left over. My family and I would eat a good portion of them but we could not eat all of it at the rate I was baking. My mom is a nurse at our hospital in Anderson. She got the great idea to start taking the extras into work for her coworkers to enjoy as well. They loved getting treats brought into them at work and always said my cupcakes were so good, especially the frosting! Hint, hint ;) Shortly after my mom started taking them to work, she had coworkers start coming up to her and asking if I would make cupcakes for them or for their occasion. I was so ecstatic that people wanted me to make them cupcakes. I mean, I will take any excuse to be in the kitchen baking, don’t have to ask me twice! (This next tidbit stays between you and me...but I looked forward to making the cupcakes not only because they were fun, but because I got to eat the extras.) Get this, they even said they would pay me to make them cupcakes. 12 year old madi took that and ran with it. I wasn’t old enough to work a real job yet so I thought this would be perfect to earn some spending money. My mom and I had a system, she buys the ingredients and I would give her half of the earnings. I started making cupcakes for birthdays, baby showers, I even did a wedding once, and more! It was so much fun and I was living the entrepreneur life the best I could at my age. 


That first year of baking, all I asked for Christmas was for baking supplies. I wanted recipe books, food coloring, flavoring, piping tips, and everything else down the baking aisle of the craft store. I ended up getting some pretty cool cupcake books. The recipes had some that used cake mix and some that did not. I got the urge to finally start branching out to scratch recipes because I realized that real bakers don’t use cake mix. By this point I was really wanting to pursue this as a career once I was older. I loved it so much and was already racking up loyal customers. So I was going to do just that. That was the plan after I graduated, I was going to own my own bakery!


Throughout the years of baking, I did a lot of research about owning your own bakery. I realized owning your own business is tough. It seemed like you either own a bakery, get on TV, then make it big...or you don’t and your bakery doesn’t get enough business. I was honestly terrified of putting my all into this and it not working out in the end. I still am to this day. I decided that I was going to go to school to be a chef so if baking didn’t work out, then I have another job to fall back on. I loved cooking also, not as much as baking, but I would do anything to stay in the culinary field. As I grew up my direction of my “reliable fall back job” changed. I started developing and understanding a greater love for animals. I absolutely adore every type of animal (maybe not sharks...that’s a whole other phobia) and I wanted to be able to help and be a voice to them in any way I can. I see them as living things with feelings as well. I will dive deeper into me discovering the vet tech life in a future blog, but for now I am going to continue our scheduled program of how I am where I am now. Later down the line I switched my fall back job to being a RVT (registered veterinary technician.) Now the plan will be baking, go to school to become an RVT, have those credentials and a job to fall back on so if baking does not work out. Solid plan, foolproof. 


I did so many things with my baking throughout my younger years. As I stated above, I did a ton for birthdays, baby showers, gender reveals, a wedding, multiple fundraisers, and even a cupcake war at my mom’s work. You remember that stand mixer I absolutely love so much? I won it! My mom’s work held 3 years of this cupcake wars and the prize was a new Kitchen-Aid stand mixer. The first two years I did not win, but I brought it all home with the third year. I loved the cupcake wars so much! I got to miss school that day (don’t worry I never normally skipped and had good grades so my parents allowed it for this one event) and present my cupcakes amongst 20 other bakers and 4 judges. The cupcake that took me to the finish line was my s’mores cupcake. The very same one on the menu today (*insert shameless plug* Order some today!) I was 15 at the time I won the cupcake wars. I went up against some awesome bakers who have been baking for years. One of the best days of my life, hands down. I took that mixer home and just was in awe for days. Didn’t feel real you guys! Ok, ok I will calm back down. I also did multiple years of fundraisers at my mom’s work to help raise money for Relay For Life. If you don’t know what the organization is then here is their definition;


“Relay For Life is a community-based fundraising event for the American Cancer Society and many other Cancer related institutions, societies and associations”


My mom was a part of this organization because she had melanoma when I was really young. Every year my mom, grandma, and I participated in their yearly walks and programs they held to raise money and awareness. To raise money for the hospital aspect of the organization I would bake 100 cupcakes and sell them in front of the cafeteria during the afternoon time when employees would be heading to lunch. That way I could catch them when they were hungry! I would have others donate their baked goods to earn more money for the cause. We would usually sell out of everything, and if we didn’t, then we were pretty close. It was always a great feeling having done a successful fundraiser, especially for a cause that means so much to you. 


Pretty much throughout the age of 12-18 I did all the mentioned cupcake activities. By the time I was old enough to get a part time job I did, but I still did cupcakes on the side. The pace of baking slowed down as I grew older. School, graduation, college, and jobs were all the main priority. If I was working or had a ton of homework then sometimes I had to decline an order request. I hated doing that because I loved baking so much, but school always came first. As I grew older and started focusing on college I started to slip away from the thought of baking. I went to the thought of being an RVT as my full time job, and baking being a mere hobby on the side. Once it was time for college I was not able to bake as much. My college was an accelerated program so I had finals every 4 weeks for the next 18 months. 24/7 homework and school, no cupcakes. I got in that groove and didn’t even think about doing cupcakes after college. My degree was for veterinary science, so once I graduate, I will start a career in the veterinary field. I did that. I graduated with my associates, loved every aspect of the field, got a job at a vet clinic, and loved it. I worked at the vet clinic for around 6 months right after I graduated at the end of 2019. It was so much fun, and I got to work with dogs, puppies, cats, kittens, and more! Not going to lie, some days were difficult, but mainly if you had a difficult patient that was not wanting to be at the vet. 


Around my 6 month mark of working at the vet clinic, I went through a rough patch in my life. My doctor had me take a leave of absence from the clinic to have a mental and personal rest. I did not have a set length of the absence, just whenever I was cleared to go back. I isolated myself from everyone, friends and family. I mainly stayed at home and tried to focus on self care there by myself. As you could probably guess, that gets a little redundant and boring after the first week or so. One day bud (best friend stated in a previous blog) texted me and asked if I would make her favorite snickerdoodle cupcakes for her 20th birthday. I agreed because what else was I going to do, plus it’s bud...she is like my ride or die. When the day came to make the cupcakes it was like everything that I had been struggling with was non-existent. I caught myself in the middle of baking and realized that I was smiling. I had not genuinely smiled with joy in so long. It had all been fake leading up to it. It hit me, I strayed away from what I really wanted to do in this life. I wanted to bake. I had been so focused on getting into college, succeeding in college, and getting a job that I forgot the whole “plan” I had. I was going to have the vet life to fall back on if baking did not work out. I mean if baking does not last, then there will always be a vet clinic I can work at. I had to fix this.


While being on leave of absence, I baked so many cupcakes. I was baking my little heart out! I was back in my happy place, and nothing could bring me down. There was suddenly no more struggle or darkness, the clouds were parting for the sun to shine again. It was so nice. It had been a while since I saw the sun and I started to lose hope in seeing it again. 


I visited my dad one day and told him all that had been going on and how I had gotten back into baking. He was so happy to hear that. I started to mess around and joked about how I wish I could just be a baker, that’s all I have ever wanted to be and do. He said why not? I looked at him funny like,” Dad, be serious. I wouldn’t be able to make car payments or try to live on my own.” He told me maybe not, but right now is the best time if ever to try. He started throwing the facts out to me, I live rent free right now (no rush to move out at my young age), I only have a car payment to make each month (not too much to try and make), and I’m on their insurance till I am 26. I stared off and took all that in. It all made sense, if I was going to start from the bottom and work my way up now would be the time to try since I don’t have a lot of financial obligations. I made it a point to him that I definitely would want to incorporate my degree there somewhere because I love the veterinary side as well. That’s where the canines part comes into my business. Perfect for people who need a dog sitter while out of town, and knowing that if any emergency happens then I have the medical background knowledge. Their fur baby would be in safe hands! If the pup had any medical needs I would know how to help. I know how sometimes vet clinics send home injections and fluids to administer at home for a cheaper price, and some people don’t know where to start or how to even do that. That is where I could come in! I like to explain it as an “on call doggy nurse” there to help with any needs! If you work all day and don’t want them home alone for that long, then I can stop by for an hour to feed, walk, and play with them. This plan sounded amazing! I would get to bake and still work with dogs.


I knew that I wanted to give this business my full attention to really try and make it work. I wanted to take no chance at anything getting in the way. It was a tough decision, but a couple weeks later I resigned from my vet clinic job. It was a bittersweet moment, and I am so grateful for the opportunity they gave me as a fresh out of college adult. I really loved working there, but I didn’t want to wonder if it wouldn't work out because I didn’t have my full attention and time on this business. I miss everyone greatly and they became a second family to me. Everything ended on a good note. They were all very understanding and supportive (I used to talk their ear off about baking so they understood my love for it!) I still keep in touch and bring them cupcakes every once in a while. I know that if this ends up not working out, then I always have the vet clinic to fall back on. So that was it. Now it was time to focus on my dream business...Cupcakes & Canines!


We are pretty much up to the present time now. Once I started this as my full time focus, I have not stopped. My orders have been slowly picking up, I started this blog and social media, experimenting with new flavors and items, and more! You can not smack the smile off my face now (please don’t actually attempt to smack me.) I’m loving every aspect of developing it from the ground up, and hopefully owning an actual store front one day. I’ve advanced in my cupcake making skills as well throughout the years. I now make everything from scratch, so you know it has the nice old homemade flavor with love and care. I get even more rave about them since going homemade. Cake mix is great, but not after you have these!


This is what 12 year old Madi dreamt of, and I’m going to work my butt off to try and make it a success. I know there might be failure, but at least I’ll go down having the experience and knowing I gave it my absolute all! 


Oh and before I forget...I still am working towards becoming an RVT (future blog about that coming soon.) I loved my job and schooling too much to not continue on with it. Right now I am studying to take my national boards (VTNE) to become registered in December of 2020. It has definitely been tough studying 24/7 and keeping up with cupcakes orders/projects. I know it will all be worth it in the end. I also have no problem if somewhere down the line I have to pick up a part time job at a clinic to help...that’s why I wanted a fall back ;) 


Everything is looking up and I can hope that it continues. I love you all!! Without your love and support for this growing small business, I wouldn’t be able to achieve this dream. Thank you from my whole heart!! I hope you have all enjoyed the story of how I got started and where I am today. I apologize also for how long it was...and believe me this is the shortened version! I can't wait to tell you guys the schooling portion of my journey. Hope you all continue to have an amazing day! See you next time!


Xoxo, Cupcakes & Canines


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Email: cupcakesncanines@gmail.cm


Phone: (765)606-0980



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