Baking Lesson #1: No More Excuses

I have been thinking of teaching kids for a while. It's one of those things I really enjoy. I see how much fun my kids have around the kitchen and I remember of times growing up learning how to bake from my mom. But it wasn't until the daughter of my friend and mentor, Carol, asked me to teach her that I really started to hold classes. Having that time with Sachi, my friend's daughter, inspired me to start offering fun and yummy classes to other kids. I didn't think I had the skills to be a teacher and I can't say I have ALL the materials I would consider to be part of a full kitchen, then I saw this quote. (I love inspirational quotes, by the way. If you follow me on Pinterest, you'll notice that I pin a lot of cakes and quotes. Hehe!).

Here's the quote:

This got me thinking. If Julia Child had given in to that excuse that she was too old to cook, then she would never have found her passion in cooking - and would never have reached her success or inspire others like me.

I couldn't let my limitations hold me back.

So I started teaching. Meet Tali, my youngest student (and my favorite girl in the world!) and Sachi, my first real student.

What started out as a baking trial class with these girls turned into a full-blown baking class for kids. During the summer, I gave baking lessons for kids aged 4-7 years old and older kids aged 8-13 years old. Not only was it less challenging than I thought, it actually it turned out to be amazing. We had so much fun.

I didn't need the baking degree like I thought, I just taught the things I knew by heart. I had cupcake, cake, cookie, cake pops and rainbow desserts classes. All of those things I bake on a regular basis. For the stuff I didn't know, I just turned to my growing collection of baking and cook books and tutorial videos I had bookmarked but had never gotten around to really watching.

I didn't need the extra materials as well. I just used the things that I had already. Me and my excuses! There was no reason not to start at all!

If I had given in to my excuses, I would have missed out on a lot. I wouldn't have been able to teach a new batch of upcoming bakers, more importantly, I wouldn't have been able to share the joy in baking. I also wouldn't have seen the beautiful smiles on these super talented kids while showing off their work, and I wouldn't have learned the things I learned from teaching, one of them was this: to wake up and throw my excuses away.

See you in our next class!