Why I Started Baking at Age 8

People always ask me how I started baking. The real answer is: I made terrible cookies for my mom's birthday and she ate them anyway.

The First Batch

I was 8. I found a recipe online, measured everything wrong, and set the oven too high. The cookies came out burnt on the outside and raw in the middle. My mom ate three of them and told me they were the best cookies she'd ever had.

I knew she was lying, but it made me want to make ones that were actually good.

The Learning Curve

For the next few years, I baked every weekend. My family was my test kitchen — my stepdad is brutally honest, which helped a lot. If something was dry, he'd say it. If something needed more salt, he'd tell me. Most of my recipes went through 10-15 versions before I was happy with them.

I burned a lot of things. I forgot the baking soda more times than I want to admit. I once used salt instead of sugar in an entire batch of snickerdoodles (don't recommend it). But every mistake taught me something.

The School Fundraiser

Last year, my school had a fundraiser bake sale. I brought four dozen chocolate chip cookies, priced them at $2 each. They sold out in 10 minutes. Not exaggerating — 10 minutes.

A teacher came up and asked if I could make five dozen for a staff meeting. I said yes. Then her neighbor called. Then her neighbor's coworker. Within a month, I was baking 3-4 orders a week.

Going Official

That's when we looked into the Texas Cottage Food Law and realized I could actually sell from home legally. We set up the website, got everything in order, and here we are.

I'm 13 now. I've been baking for five years. I've gone through probably 500 pounds of flour and at least 200 pounds of butter. And I'm just getting started.

Check out what I'm baking this week at bakedbymatt.com/menu.