From the moment I could stand on my Winnie the Pooh kitchen stool and hold a whisk, I have been baking. The first time I cooked anything by myself, I was 7 years old, and I decided my mother deserved pancakes in bed for Mother's Day. She was shocked at 6 am to find that I had been up for an hour -hovering over the stove by myself- making her breakfast! After that day, she opted to indulge my curiosities and began teaching me kitchen safety, knife skills, and how to make basic recipes.

Where most kids grow in and out of interests, baking became my obsession. Every science project in my elementary years was dedicated to discovering the chemical consequences of different leavening agents, baking temperatures, pan materials... God bless my mother for allowing me to destroy her kitchen time and again!

I knew from a young age that I wanted to be one of the best. My biggest fear was that someone would call me or my food "boring". I began a game at the lunch table in middle school where my friends would throw out crazy ingredients, and I would have to pick 3 of them to include in the following day's baking experiments. I would bring in cupcake combos such as Fluffer-Nutter-Banana-Blueberry, Strawberry-Pink Peppercorn-Rhubarb-Honey, and so on. Not all combos were winners, but that was part of the fun. It encouraged my creativity.

My first job in a true commercial kitchen was when I was 14. I started as a dishwasher and prep cook for a catering company in Broadripple, Indiana. I will never forget how absolutely miserable I felt, covered in wet food, at the end of each dish shift. But I lived for the moments I got to have my hands on a chef's knife. So I kept going. I worked my way up to being their Assistant Pastry Chef in the 4 years I stayed there until I decided to move to Florida to pursue a degree in Foodservice and Restaurant Management. I will forever be grateful for the lessons Chef Brian taught me there.

Throughout my schooling, I continued to fall in love with pastry arts. Living in a dorm limited my access to oven space, so I would show up at my friends' apartments with bags of ingredients and beg them to let me make their house smell like bread for a few hours.

Following and during my education, I worked in several restaurants, but I knew in my heart that what I truly longed to do was bake.

On a whim one day, I filled out an application to be on Food Network. I figured, "Someone has to be on the show ... it might as well be me!" I didn't expect to hear anything, but within 6 weeks, I was flying out to film Spring Baking Championship Easter Season 3. This is quite honestly what changed my life.

Leading up to the show, I was working in a croissant bakery, specializing in laminated doughs and French-style plated desserts. This show was largely focused on cake sculpting. I was *severely* out of myelement. And yet, somehow, at the end of 6 weeks, I was one of three people left in the finale, my bold flavors having taken me further than I could have imagined.

When the show aired, I began to gather a small following, and I started to get messages asking for custom cakes. Originally, I was hesitant, as I didn't identify as a cake artist. But I knew that I loved cakes, and I thought it couldn't hurt to start a little side hustle. Now, two years later, that "side hustle" is my full time job, and I am traveling all over the state every week to deliver cakes. Not to mention, I now get to travel to all kinds of pastry expos all over the country and meet people I never would have dreamed of meeting. If you had told me a year ago that I would shake Adriano Zumbo's hand and chat with him casually about Macaron Sugar ratios, or help Chef Gonzo fold a table linen while we chatted about our competitive sport fascinations, I would have told you that you're crazy. Me? Some girl from Nowhere, Indiana? No way. And yet... here we are.

I have no idea what the future holds, but I do know that I am excited for it. I have been blessed beyond measure, and all I know is that I'm not done growing yet!