This past Friday was my last wedding. While the transition has been ongoing for a while, I can officially say that one chapter is closed. What is funny is that when I officially started Baked by Billie, I was a “blogger”. I would try to post weekly recipes to share with you but I definitely struggled with that. I lacked a lot of confidence when I started Baked by Billie. I didn’t think anyone would be interested in my recipes. I slowly went away from blogging into being an online bakery. I was afraid of being a food blogger, because I was scared of failing.

I finally went full time with my online bakery. I really believe I needed this detour in my business. I needed to learn a lot about baking, time management in the kitchen and I needed to gain confidence. Really I needed to believe in myself that I could be successful. About this time 2 years ago I had the busiest week of my business. I had 5 weddings in one weekend, plus 2 grooms cake and a few orders. That weekend went overall well, but I realized I needed to learn to say no to things. I came out of that weekend feeling successful and gained a lot of confidence and experience. I was ready to conquer the world, except shortly after that I realized how burned out I was. I wasn’t enjoying baking and being crazy busy. I knew I had to make changes.

After about 6 months of feeling  this tug and praying about it, I started to transition away from orders and back into blogging. I had to find my love for baking and cooking again. I mean it has been my passion for so long, how could I not want to bake. How did I not want to be in a kitchen? Blogging helped me get there again. It wasn’t easy, I was still being drawn back into the online bakery for about a year. It was like I would take 1 step forward and 2 steps back or 2 steps forward and 1 step back. I kept turning around, just like Cashew does when she doesn’t want to go on a walk. But once she gets going, she leads the way.

So am I sad that Baked by Billie is officially over? No, I was happy to finish the last 3 weddings that I committed to for 2020. I stopped taking orders a few months ago. I wouldn’t change anything I learned from being an online bakery. I am a better and stronger person. I believe in myself. So when the going gets tough with blogging, I think about all I have learned and become. 

Tomorrow we kick off Taco week. We have four days of taco recipes and Friday we end with Margaritas.

That’s the dish from my kitchen to your kitchen ????

Billie-Jo