It has been a completely amazing experience working out of the shared kitchen.  I have learned SO MUCH, and my cookies SOLD OUT my first week!!!

Let’s back it up, it hasn’t all been sunshine and rainbows…

This has been a period of relearning.

I fought (through prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit!) feelings of defeat and frustration as I relearned EVERYTHING.

(Let me also say, My husband has been very supportive, my mother-in-law has been very generous with her time, watching the boys, and the owner has been SO HELPFUL! She and the other business owners through the kitchen are great!)

I am relearning everything, from baking times and temps to my routine of chill-roll-cut-bake, which has now become chill-room temperaturize-roll-chill-cut-bake.

Cutouts and Dino Grahams relearned, I shall tackle my other treats some other time.

I also learned exactly HOW LONG everything takes.

Like how long it takes for Royal Icing to dry.  At home I would just come back to my project in the morning. It takes HOURS, lots of hours to dry.

Decorating also takes hours.

The whole process takes days! Hahah! Which I guess I never paid much attention to before.  One day to make and chill the dough.  One day to bake the cookies.  One (sometimes two) day(s) to decorate.  (Half a day to dry) One day to package.  It truly is a labor of love and boy do I LOVE IT!

Thank you to everyone who has visited United Kitchen, and those who have supported my business through prayer, purchases, and pre-orders!

Sincerely,

Bakeosaurus Rex

Photo Credit: Bridget Conlan

What does this have to do with baking, decorating and delicious treats?

If you had asked me 6 weeks ago how to make a cake, I would have told you to call Costco and place an order.  If you had persisted and wanted that cake to be baked in your home oven I would have told you which aisle in Walmart the boxed cake mixes could be found though I rarely, at that point, had even ventured to do THAT.

When I decided to make my son’s birthday cake (I didn’t want to pay the hundreds of dollars other people charge to have my son obliterate it, but I did want him to have something special) I didn’t have a recipe.  (Thank you Swan’s Cake Flour for putting the recipe right on the back of the box) I didn’t have a mixer or even a pan.  I was not equipped for the task at hand, but I did have the motivation and curiosity it took to TRY.

My mother-in-law let me borrow her mixer:

Since then, my super amazing and generous friend, Joslyn donated her Sunbeam to BakeosaurusRex.  God is GOOD!

And I put out a little plea on Facebook to borrow a pan.  Many friends responded to my need.  Ultimately I ended up borrowing the one pictured below from my friend Colleen which she since then has donated to BakeosaurusRex.  God is GOOD! (what do you have collected dust in your cabinets? I’d love to clear your clutter!) 

Since that moment, which was now a month ago, God has revealed a talent within me, not even I knew was hiding.  As Confucius said,

Choose a Job You Love, and You Will Never Have To Work a Day in Your Life- Confucius

I do have to find humor in the call though.  I had been praying for willpower and the WANT TO motivation (as suggested in Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst) for my health and weight-loss and God answers by given me the opportunity to exercise willpower and to draw closer to him to seek my WANT TO with all these delicious goodies around 24/7.

I had also been praying for assistance and clarity with time management strategies… the answer seems to be that the more you have on your plate the more hours there are in a day as you HAVE to manage the time you were gifted more carefully to accomplish your home, family, BSF, hobbies and BAKING all while putting CHRIST first.

This month has been full of learning and a lot of fun!  Thank you, God for equipping those you call to do Your Will!  -Amen!

Happy Baking,

BakeosaurusRex