Hello!

Welcome to Gratefully Baked! Baking has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. It was not until my son’s first birthday in 2003 (I wish I had a picture of the Nemo cake!) that I really started to use baking as an artistic outlet. Art was my favorite subject in school, but I never had a favorite medium until I discovered frosting and cake decorating. What started as making family and coworkers cakes made from scratch quickly turned into something much more. I started receiving requests for wedding cakes and treats and found the joy in being a part of the special moments in other’s lives.

While making my first wedding cake, I learned that baking and decorating was much more than just that…it was therapeutic. Here I was in my little apartment kitchen, broken hearted due to a recent unexpected breakup, making a wedding cake, someone’s happily ever after. Not going to lie, it was a struggle at first on so many levels, but the hardest was the emotions I was going through and trying to navigate my new life while trying to create something beautiful. Wedding cakes are no small feat. They take planning, time, and patience. Everything I needed to start over as well. As I worked late into the night with nothing but my thoughts and the quiet sounds of sugar coming together to become a confection of love, I realized I found my happy place even when everything else felt dark. I fell in love with the process. I fell in love with seeing the joy in someone’s eyes seeing something that was created just for them. I referred to it as cake therapy and still do to this day.

Fast forward to November 2023, a year of so many challenges that ended with our good boy labradoodle, Jerry, passing away unexpectedly. To say I am dog person is saying it lightly. My dogs are my kiddos. My husband, Andy, and I and our dog Bobby were beyond sad and felt a constant void in our life. I needed cake therapy on a whole new level. I had started making sugar cookies in the years prior and decided it was time to spread more baking love. I started Gratefully Baked and launched my business right before holiday cookie season. I baked more than I ever had and although the year was a hard one, I was still grateful for everything I was given in life. I had a home, a wonderful husband, a son that I was more than proud of, a job, and friends that had become family overnight. Most importantly I was grateful for baking. I was grateful for everyone that had invited me into their moments of joy. Baking taught me how to navigate life’s hardest moments by still finding the joy in the little things, the finishing touches that required patience and seeing the potential.

So, I invite you to share in my joy too. Here I hope to share some of the love, moments, and life balance that happens behind the scenes of my baking. Welcome to the Gratefully Baked family.