Meet Lolo

I brainstormed a lot about what to call my blog and budding cake business, but since hearing my family and friends call me Lolo makes me as happy as putting together the layers of a cake, I knew I had to call it Lolo's Layers! 

Believe it or not I was cursed in the kitchen until about college. In high school, no matter what I tried I could not follow a recipe to save my life. I would forget the flour, give my friends underdone cookies, or sometimes even use salt instead of sugar. Oops! It is safe to say I was a disaster! 

It was really frustrating because baking and of course eating delicious treats was one of my favorite things. So what the heck was my problem? The world may never know, but what I do know is that the sugar fairy must have granted my wish because it seems like over night everything just...clicked. 

Before I knew it, my baking talent had become a descriptor of who I was. It wasn't oh this is my friend Lauren from San Diego, or the one with long brown hair, or the one obsessed with Christmas, it was.... this is my friend Lauren, she is the one making me FAT from all the treats she bakes me! I remember my freshman roommate naming one of my chocolate cakes the "Proposal Cake" because she said if I were to make it for a boy he would drop to one knee and propose on the spot! That hasn't worked yet, but who knows?

Slow but surely I started collecting more recipes and finding more excuse to put my unexplained new talent to work. Then one fateful day while walking through the Student Center on Campus, my life was changed for ever. I saw an advertisement of a Course One Wilton cake decorating class. I thought I would give it a shot, little did I know that I would discover my true love! Little by little I have taught my self new tricks and looked for challenges to struggle through to help me get better with each cake. Sometimes when someone asks, "Can you do that?" in my head I am thinking, "WHAT?!?! No way!", but I always say yes and to my surprise I always find a way. There is nothing better than having finished cake that looks exactly like you imagined or better yet, seeing a cake come together you thought you couldn't do. 

Decorating cakes and baking is definitely my happy place. There is a line from the movie "Julie and Julia" that I swear was stolen from my own mind. Julie Powell says, "You know what I love about cooking? I love that after a day when nothing is sure, you can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk, it will get thick. It's such a comfort." So if you ever need a cake, please give me the excuses to get lost in my happy place!