08/23/2026
We love to see how this event gives bakers confidence!
✨✨Update from my Kitchen-Maine State Cake Decorating Competition ✨✨ (Longer post but it captures the day)
I’m honestly still trying to process yesterday.
Six months ago, I literally picked up a piping bag for the first time.
Six months.
I’ve always baked and I’ve always spread icing over a cake with a spatula like grandma did but never truly tried to make it look professional.
A year ago, I couldn’t have imagined any of this. I had received some of the scariest health news of my life and spent months worrying, followed by more months healing. I was also coming out of an incredibly difficult and toxic work environment and trying to figure out what was next for me.
Somewhere in all of that, I found comfort in something I had always loved doing for friends and family.
Cooking and Baking.
It became therapy. It gave me something creative to pour myself into. And little by little, it started becoming something more.
I’ve struggled with confidence and self-worth for a long time. As a mom who only has a few years left before our last one leaves the nest, figuring out who I am outside of being Mom and what the next chapter of my life looks like has been harder than I expected.
Ryan has had more confidence in me through all of this than I’ve had in myself. He’s encouraged me to keep going when I’ve questioned everything, and he’s believed I could do things that I wasn’t quite ready to believe I could do myself.
So when I decided to enter the cake competition, it wasn’t because I thought I could win.
I actually assumed I wouldn’t.
I entered because I wanted to learn.
I wanted to experience something completely outside my comfort zone. I wanted to meet and learn from people who knew far more than I did. And I wanted to prove to myself that being scared didn’t have to stop me from trying.
Initially I entered as an amateur.
I was called back and told that I should really be entering the professional category.
I still can’t quite wrap my head around that.
I was standing in a room with incredibly talented people who have been doing this for anywhere from 6 to 30 years all professionally—and I’ve been decorating cakes for six months.
I was just grateful to be there.
And then the last couple of days really tested how badly I wanted to follow through. 😂
My freezer thawed. I lost so much. Things went wrong with the cake. My anxiety was through the roof. The finished cake wasn’t exactly what I had imagined, and I knew it wasn’t my best work.
I wanted to scrap it and start over.
But eventually I told myself:
Just show up.
That’s all.
It doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to win. Just finish what you started, put your cake on that table, listen, learn and be grateful for the opportunity.
So that’s what I did.
And that alone felt like a win to me. Truly.
I was competing much more with my own fear and self-doubt than I was with anyone standing in that room.
Then they announced that “my sweet little cake” as so many spectators called it that day, had received an Honorable Mention.
I was genuinely shocked. 🥹
But what happened afterward meant even more to me.
I had the opportunity to hear feedback from chefs and people with years and years of experience. They were incredibly kind and encouraging. They loved the flavor, texture and moistness of my cake. They complimented my piping and the cleanliness of my work. They gave me constructive criticism about where I can grow and encouraged me to keep working with buttercream—just bring them a little more “WOW” next time.
They even told me that my cake was the kind of cake they personally would want to buy if they walked into a bakery.
I don’t think they could possibly know how much those words meant to someone who is still so new at this and still questions herself constantly.
I am just so incredibly grateful.
Grateful for the judges who took the time to share their knowledge and encouragement.
Grateful for the amazingly talented and kind people I got to meet.
Grateful for every person who has ordered something from me, encouraged me, shared a post, given me an opportunity to practice or trusted me with something important.
And especially grateful for a husband who apparently saw something in me long before I could see it in myself.
I went into yesterday wanting to learn about cake decorating.
I think I came home having learned a little more about myself.
Sometimes showing up really is the win.
Yesterday, I showed up scared. I showed up knowing my work wasn’t perfect. I showed up knowing I was surrounded by people with decades more experience than me.
And everyone was kind.
I learned.
I was inspired.
I had an amazing time.
I came home wanting to learn more, not feeling like I needed to be more.
And somehow, my sweet little cake came home with an Honorable Mention too. 🥹❤️
I’m humbled. I’m grateful. I’m still a little shocked.
And I have never been more excited to keep learning and growing.
Apparently I have one year to figure out this whole “more WOW” thing. 😂
I can’t wait.
