Hello and thank you for popping in to my little bloggy world! My name is Roxana. I’m a stay-at-home mom to 4 beautiful kiddos. I’ve been married to my amazing husband for 14 years and we live in the suburbs of Chicago. Our daughters are 13 and 5, our sons are 9 and 2. π
If you had asked me back in 2014 when I wrote my first guest post, “Do you see yourself starting your own blog?”, you would’ve gotten a straight up dear-in-the-headlights look from me. I had no idea that I could turn a love for baking into a blog. I mean, sure I follow lots of amazing bloggers, who do just that and more. I’ve even had the privilege to get to know some of them. I just never thought that I could do what they do. Until one evening I struck up a conversation with my friend Kirsten from Sweet Tea & Saving Grace about a cookie recipe she’d shared on her page. Needless to say, in the course of this conversation the idea for my first recipe was born and after sharing it with her she invited me to guest post it on her blog!
To make things even more exciting, after writing my first guest post at Sweet Tea & Saving Grace, Kirsten asked me to be a MONTHLY recipe contributor! At the same time, I was connecting with my ultimate baking blog inspiration, Betsy at JavaCupcake. I’ve been following Betsy’s blog for a long time and it’s been amazing to have helped her out a little behind the scenes and also be a contributor on her blog. She continues to be a huge inspiration and mentor to me and I can also count her as a friend. π
So what started out as just a little Facebook page for me to share my baking adventures has now blossomed into an even bigger adventure. Over the last year of writing blog posts I’ve come to realize that not only am I sharing recipes with all of you, but I have a creative outlet and through these posts I also document some family traditions and stories. I’ll always be able to refer to these posts, not only for the recipes themselves, but I can reminisce about what was happening at that time.
Couple things that I often get asked… #1- “How did you come up with The Red Eye Baker?” and #2- “Where did you learn to do that?!!” The name for my Facebook page and now my blog is something that my husband came up with. If you haven’t guessed… it’s because I usually bake late at night. π There’s nothing better than decorating a buttercream birthday cake and having someone’s little finger swipe straight through you’re perfect frosting swirl. Of course that is not always the the case especially when you need daylight to make pretty pictures for blog posts. Needless to say, I’m often working with some very eager assistants and taste testers if I’m not up late baking some yummy goodness.
I will be the first to tell you that I am no expert. I did not go to culinary school and I haven’t even been to one of the local Wilton classes (both are on my bucket list though). I have always been a better baker than a cook, but everything that I have learned in recent years has come from reading awesome baking blogs and the almighty YouTube. It’s amazing what you can find and learn from all the amazing tutorials out there! Sure it’s a lot of trial and error, but ultimately I enjoy exploring new decorating techniques, making tasty treats, and seeing the smile on someone’s face when they taste it. π
In my experience food is something that brings people together. Whether at your parents’ house for a traditional holiday dinner, a loved one’s birthday, or when someone brings in donuts and a box-o-Joe to the office. Food is an opportunity to gather and be together, to become closer, to celebrate life. In 2005 we lost my dad and then 10 years later my father-in-law passed away. I realized that some of my fondest memories of both my dads are connected with food. I can vividly picture my dad being my mom’s sous chef, helping her chop the vegetables for her delicious, must have veggie salad at Easter time. I can close my eyes and see my FIL in an apron carefully slicing up meat to serve for a family Sunday dinner. I hope to inspire you to make memories with those that you love.
I’m truly grateful that you’ve taken time out of your day to spend some time with me. I hope that you will follow along with me as I grow through this journey that is blogging, that I inspire you to have some fun in your kitchen, that some of my stories (and recipes) make you smile, and that you enjoy some deliciousness with those that you love!
xox- Roxana
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