Celebrating Major Milestones
New year, means new baking challenges! I fully believe that celebrating milestones is so important. No matter the size of the milestone it is always important to take a step back and acknowledge the hard work you put in to get to where you are. Whether that is celebrating a birthday or new job offer, acing that presentation you spent hours on or even just learning a new skill. The way I like to celebrate a special is by of course baking something! So today I’m going to share some milestones that I have celebrated with friends and families in the past month!
CELEBRATING NEW JOBS
One of my oldest friends from middle school very recently got a job and she has no idea how happy and proud I am of her for finding the perfect job. To celebrate I made her absolute favourite thing in the world: CHOCOLATE, CHOCOLATE AND MORE CHOCOLATE (AKA a chocolate cake)! For her birthday in high school I would always make her chocolate cupcakes, but when the time came around to making her a celebratory cake, I could not find my recipe! So turning to my trusted baking website (Sally's Baking Addiction), I found what looked like a great cake. And I (along with Gabby) can vouch that this is an amazing chocolate cake recipe.
As we sat on her couch, our conversation went from reminiscing about stories from high school to exchanging notes about what it is like to go through a job search. My time in school is coming quickly to an end, and I too am in the process of finding a job or internship starting this summer. The biggest comment that we have in common is that so many entry-level jobs out there require some past experience. But as a recent graduate how do companies expect us to have any prior experience?
Last semester I took a course called Employment Preparedness and one of the biggest takeaways from this class was learning how to position and leverage what is on my resume in a way that will make up for the lack of experience under my belt. One thing I can confidently say is that I have had an amazing opportunity to study at one of the top universities not only Canada, but also the world. I’m also really excited about where I’m heading and getting the chance to delve into the business world through marketing.
Although, unlike my undergrad career I’ve taken it upon myself to learn new skills on my own in order to complement what I am learning in my current education. Most recently I’m trying to improve my photography skills! I have always loved taking pictures, and the type of photo I’m trying to improve on taking is product shots. All of the photos you see of my baked goods need to be at the right angle and have proper lighting. But my biggest challenge is to avoid shaking, however after getting myself a tripod my photos have come out so much clearer. And of course a little photo editing to make my images a little more vivid using Adobe Lightroom. My next challenge I’m giving myself is perfecting portrait shots! I’m so lucky to have met the founder of M.B. Fitness in my new program and we’ve gone on various photo shoots around the city to get some great shots for her business.
CELEBRATING FIRSTS:
I have very recently become a godmother and this special day is something that had to be celebrated. Not only was this a very special day for my family, but this was the first time I got to be the sole baker for a family occasion. And there was no way I was going to mess this up! To prepare for this special day, I had to do so much research as I was taking on some new challenges. However, I used recipes that I know my family would enjoy.
Challenges I took on:
- Baking and decorating a 2 tier cake
- Baking and personalizing sugar cookies
To stay on track I had to make a schedule in order to make sure I got everything done on time. One fun fact about me is that I absolutely LOVE making schedules for myself. I know it’s weird but it lowers my anxiety when I know what needs to be done and how much time I have to get it done.
What I learned from this baking challenge:
- Make your cake layers as flat as possible or else your cake looks lopsided. This happened to me but I was able to hide the gap between layers using my dove cookies!
- It is so important to give royal icing enough time to dry in between steps or else the designs start to mix!
I had so much fun baking and decorating for a theme and I think I’m going to keep that up and bake based on various holidays! Next up: Valentine’s Day! I mean who doesn’t love a cute little heart cookie?!
Thanks for actually reading this whole post; it ended up much longer than expected! Please check back for more of a Glimpse of Meagan’s Journey!
