Professional Baking

I have dreams to become a professional baker. Baking is something that has been a much ingrained natural interest and God given talent for me. I say natural, because with the exception of the occasional toll house bag of chocolate chips that would enter the house and become cookies, neither of my parents really baked. Yes, we had our frequent visits with box mixes of Duncan Hines brownies and cakes, but never anything from scratch. Which was fine, my mother is an astounding cook who's meals I still deeply miss now that I've flown the proverbial coop.

Back to the matter at hand, however, when I became old enough to handle myself in the kitchen, baking goodies became a natural result. By the time I graduated high school, I was not just baking pies for Thanksgiving, I was making chocolate covered cherries for holiday birthdays and cranking out appropriately colored delicate butter cookies with self-make color sugar for the decorating. 

Now, a few years later, that I'm getting to graduate from college and have become a Mrs. I am focusing more on baking. I did not choose to go to school for culinary. In fact, I'm a theatre arts major. I love my line of work, but I realize that this does conflict with my desires to stay at home and raise my children someday. Not permanently, but there's a 20-25 year period in there.

"But baking!" I hear you protesting, "Being a professional baker means getting up at 3:30 in the morning just to start rolling out and cutting the croissants! That's not great for home life either!"

I thought so too, originally. Now that I'm reaching back more than every into my baking love, however, I'm exploring the possibility of a home commercial kitchen. It is possible to get my home baker's licenses, it just requires a few expensive renovations to a selected part of the house. I cringed at the thought, originally, but then I realized that I could be spending lots of money putting a kitchen AND a store front together, or a little less money and make a health-inspection passing worthy kitchen in the comfort of my own home and still enjoy seeing my kids grow up.

So, my poor husband has had to endure the pangs of a self induced home baking school run by yours truly every Friday. By pangs, I don't mean his own learning. I am the only student in the kitchen. However, my husband is trying to eat better, but is quickly losing the resolution with all the confectionery goodness being cranked out on Fridays... Apparently, it's time to find a large test group on the weekends.