The Reason I'm Here

Newly graduated from the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication, I am switching gears. I am going to baking school.

It started years ago when my mom and sister and I began describing the perfect bakery/cafe - the kind we would own. What started as a nice thought turned into a mild obsession.

In Fall 2009 I studied in London. During one of several trips down Portobello Road, I made a stop at the hummingbird bakery, an American bakery in central London. The line went out the door, but I would wait; I had cupcakes on my mind. Once I made it into the little shop, I still had plenty of time to look around. I saw cupcakes. I saw cake on pedestals. I saw bustling employees keeping their cool as their tiny store got slammed by market-goers. And then I saw an aproned woman emerge from a doorway behind the counter, carrying a pan of newly baked cupcakes. She dropped them off behind the counter before disappearing back through the doorway. I knew nothing about this woman except that she had looked tired and a bit overheated, and yet I found myself romanticizing her entire life. Oh, to be a baker on Portobello Road, I thought. Then: Oh, to be a baker.

And so that mild obsession became a serious consideration. Now it's an inevitable truth: we will have our own bakery someday. And perhaps this very blog will play witness to that day. Meanwhile, I'm headed in the right direction.

And so begins my adventure in baking, at school and at home.