How it all started (part 2)

Before I moved to Texas, I started looking online for cake decorator jobs in the area I was moving to.  I looked on CraigsList and found a few listings and sent my information and got a response from a bakery in Lewisville.  I moved to Texas, closed on our house on December 17 and started working at Irene's Bakery  the week after Christmas.

While working at Irene's I learned a lot...but not necessarily about cake decorating...I was working there because a) I needed a job b) I wasn't ready to open my own place fully and c) It was a good experience of what to do and also what NOT to do.  I worked there for a few months when it started to become more of a conflict of interest because I was getting closer and closer to just going out on my own. So I decided that it was better for me to leave.

So here I am...working my business, trying to get orders.  I know it's going to be slow...but I'm positive that it's going to work.  I love what I do and I hope that shows through in my personality when I talk to customers and also in my work.

I'm strapped in...my tray-table is in it's upright and locked position and I'm ready for this wild ride!!

How it all started....(part one!!)

If you would have asked when I was 18 what I would be doing 21 years in the future, I highly doubt that starting my own cake decorating business would have come out of my mouth!  Even 10 years ago I would have never seen myself where I am today.  I won't lie and say that there isn't a little bit of fear in what I'm doing.  After-all, what sane person quits their job to start a new one? (your supposed to say "really successful people")

I never knew I loved cake decorating as much as I do.  There is just something about creating something from nothing that brings happiness, joy and smiles to people's faces...and having it taste good too.

Now I'm not saying I'm amazing at what I do...but I think my work is not shabby.  I started cake decorating purely by accident!  My mother-in-law (who is a wonderful woman) is a very craftsy person and we were talking about 12 or 13 years ago about how she wanted to learn how to pipe roses with a piping bag...the only thing is she didn't want to use icing.  She wanted to use spackle  a.k.a. joint compound.  She wanted to pipe them out, let them dry hard and paint them so she could use them to embellish things she made.  I thought it was a cool idea!  Since my MIL is a shy person, she wanted to take the Wilton classes at Michaels but didn't want to go by herself....so...I did what any good daughter-in-law would do.  I signed up and went with her.

I ended up taking all 3 of the Wilton classes and did pretty well at all of it...but that's where it mostly ended for me.  I did a cake for my father-in-laws 50th birhtday, a few birthday cakes for my kids and a few cakes for the karate school that my husband worked at but that was it.   Back when I took the classes no one ever really talked much about fancy wedding cakes or custom made cakes.  Even MY wedding cake was just whatever was included in the wedding package! - I've got a picture around somewhere - I'll dig it up.

Fast-forward a few years.  I was no longer living in New Jersey, we had recently moved to Michigan due to my husband's job (yep, you guessed it...automotive) and I was going stir crazy at home with 3 kids!  I applied for a job at the Kroger up the street from our house - they had a position open in the bakery department.  I kinda embellished my cake decorating skills at the interview and for some reason, they hired me.  I wasn't allowed to work on cakes, but I watched and picked up things quickly.  6 months into working there, I was finally allowed to work on cakes...not special order ones....but the quick - slap together ones for the cake cases (ya know, the crappy ones that ya run in and grab when you remember you forgot someone's birthday)  From there I honed my piping/border skills.  I had no trouble writing on cakes either.  I worked on icing cakes and getting them really nice & smooth....the next thing I knew it was 7 years later and I was STILL at Kroger, running the bakery department as Bakery Manager and getting beat up by management and upper-level management.  But I noticed something...I was doing fewer and fewer cakes.  The thing I started to really love was getting pushed further from my daily work.

I  was getting burnt out...I needed a change...I had thought about starting my own cake shop but wasn't sure what to do or how to do it.  I ended up quitting my job at Kroger after 7 ½ years.  I remember sitting at home the day after I quit and said "well Jessica, you HAVE to do something....I knew I loved cake decorating and baking, but my skills, for the type of customers I wanted to work with, were sorely lacking.  I needed practice but now that I was out of work I had no way to pay for any kind of classes.  I turned to the internet...to YouTube to be exact. I started watching videos on making fondant figures, fondant flowers etc...I practiced and practiced....and while my figures were FAR from perfect, they were a start.

My first fondant bear...definitely rough around the edges!

I worked on different types of figures, and also tried my hand at some gum-paste flowers.  I soon decided I needed to get some more experience - with the type of cakes that I felt that I wanted to make.  I made a PowerPoint portfolio of my work...it mostly consisted of cakes I made at Kroger and some of the cakes I made when I was in Culinary School in addition to the few fondant critters I made after I quit Kroger.  I sent emails to a few local bakeries and only heard back from one - Lisa's Confection Connection The shop owner, Lisa liked my work and I went in for an interview.  My PowerPoint must have spoke for itself as she didn't ask me to ice anything or decorate any cakes.  I worked for Lisa for about 4 months when my husband was offered a new job within his company - the only catch...it was out in Texas.