Latest / Dishing with Stephanie's Dish / Nicole Aufderfaur aka @TenThousandBakes

Transcript

Nicole Aufderfaur aka @TenThousandBakes · Dishing with Stephanie's Dish

• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: Hello,
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: everybody,
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's Dish,
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: the podcast where we talk to people in the food space.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: And today, my guest is Nicole Ofterhauer, and she is at 10,000bakes on Instagram.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: And we became friends, kind of funny, through the Jason Show's Hottest Day on Record at the State Fair.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: We were all dying and couldn't think straight.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we were just like sweating ourselves off.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: And you had made these super beautiful blueberry macarons.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: And you were there to talk about your experience that you'd had as a State Fair baker,
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: but also on the Great American Baking Show,
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: which if people don't know,
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: because I still think people don't know that that show exists.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: They don't know.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Even like my friends and family sometimes don't know that it exists.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone knows the British version, but surprise, there's an American one.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: So the Great British Bake Off spun off a great American baking show and Nicole was
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: a guest on it and did very well.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Weren't you like in the final three?
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: I made it all the way to the finals.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: So that's exciting.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I just want to point out,
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know when people are going to listen to this because I'm probably going to
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: release it maybe this Friday or the next Friday.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: I haven't decided yet,
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: but if you haven't gotten a chance,
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: please go right now to Nicole's Instagram page and look at 10,000 Bakes because honestly,
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: she has some of the most amazing spooky treats on there.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: Girl, I mean, the skull truffles with the raspberry filling.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, thank you.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I've always been kind of a Halloween nut.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Always been my thing, the spookier, the better.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: For me, Halloween baking is kind of all about embracing kind of the quirky and weird.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I just go all in with it.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's always fun every year.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, your stuff is real cool looking, very beautiful.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: There was also a black.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: Was it what kind of a cake was it?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I made, it was a peri breast actually.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: So like a pate a choux based pastry.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it looked like chew pastry stuffed or filled with like a cream of some sort.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I used black cocoa creme pat.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then there was also, you couldn't see the picture, but there's like a raspberry gel as well.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: So kind of that dark chocolate raspberry thing kind of fitting with Halloween.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was unbelievably fantastic looking.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, thanks.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, I get to be my weird artistic self this time of year.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of fun.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: I like your weird artistic self.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: Take us and the listener kind of on the journey of how this whole thing started for you.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I have kind of been baking my entire life,
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: like most people grew up mom in the kitchen,
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Nestle toll house,
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Christmas put out,
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: nothing like crazy,
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: but just,
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: family baking.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: And as I grew up, I just kind of started to dive more and more into it.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of a shy person.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: So when I would go to parties,
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: like talking to people is stressful.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: But if I bring a bake, that gives me something to talk about.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I kind of started doing that more.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: And in college, I actually studied photography with like emphasis on food photography.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And because I don't want to take pictures of babies.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I decided to do the food route.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then I kind of decided that,
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: well,
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: if I want to take pictures of beautiful things,
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: I might have to learn how to bake some of these things.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's just kind of continued to grow and grow.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it's always been
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: kind of my creative endeavor that's just for me and just for fun and really lets me
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: express myself without the pressure.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm an artist full time.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I have that pressure there.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: So this is just, just for fun, just for me.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And when I saw that there was a great American baking show,
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: which I didn't even know,
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'd watched the British version for years.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then I saw online that they were casting for the American version.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, Oh, well,
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see, why not?
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I put my hat in the ring and I made it all the way to the final round the first year,
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: which I wasn't expecting.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very long process.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I just,
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: what I thought would maybe just be something that I'd enter and never hear from again,
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: ended up being this multi-year journey of traveling with baked goods and auditions.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: And after a couple, two years of auditioning, I was cast on the show.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's so exciting.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: So how long from the beginning of you arriving to start the taping to when you go
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: home is that length of time?
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: So you are there basically for an entire month.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: For us, it was the entire month of August.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: You do a lot of prep work stateside before you go, you know, coming up with your own recipes and stuff.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: But once you are there, you are there the whole time, even if you're eliminated.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Then you just kind of get a London vacation.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: But you're there for the entire month.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: So they do it in the Great British Bake Off same space?
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: So for the Great British Bake Off, there's two tents.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's a tent where they film the version everybody knows.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's a tent where they film, like, celebrity versions.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe Junior Bake Off is still there as well.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: But there are two tents.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: We're in the other tent, like,
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not the tent, but it's one of theirs.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: And Paul and Prue are still judges.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's the same judges.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's Paul and Prue.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: We have American hosts.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's the difference.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: People always kind of,
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to say hate on the American version,
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: but they always say,
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: oh,
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: we don't like it because they're hyper competitive and they don't have the accents
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: and all this.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, well, yeah, we don't have the accents.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: We're the bad team.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: So there's that.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I mean, if you want to nitpick, but it's still, like, a heartwarming, friendly show, like,
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Once people sit down and watch it, they're like, oh, that's actually enjoyable.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, yes, that's what I've been telling you.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: It is funny that the perception of Bake Off and what people love and what attracted
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: me to it,
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: too,
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: was just how kind and supportive everybody is.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: And we've gotten used to watching these,
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: chopped and these sort of aggressive male-dominated,
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: like,
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: shows of competition.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: And it is funny because I do think America in general,
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: this is a very gross generalization,
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: but I do think we're more competitive.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: We're very aggressively business focused, like success focused.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I think what is nice about the bake-off is there's a lot of people from all
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: these different walks of life and they just happen to make pastry too,
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: or they're bakers.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what it is.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact,
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: when I auditioned,
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: cause I talked a lot about my state fair competition,
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: competing background and they purposely were like asking me,
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: well,
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: are you hyper competitive?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Are you, how do you feel if you don't win?
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so I had to make sure that I expressed that I'm not competitive despite all that.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like I love the community behind these competitions and the friends that I've made
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: and they are trying to seek out people for that show that they
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: are there to just be with other bakers and have fun and get this experience and
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: aren't there because they want to win.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean,
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: the prize is a cake plate,
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: like you're not getting $20,000 or a book deal,
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: you get a cake plate.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're not there to just have a good time, you know, they're not going to put you in the tent.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: You happen to mention the State Fair.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Can you talk a little bit about your State Fair baking experience?
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: Because you're pretty well known and traveled in the State Fair scene, too.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: Minnesota State Fair.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Especially the last year, people have kind of, I don't know.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: found my, like I've always shared about my journey with it.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of why I started my Instagram page was because I wanted to share this
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: community and show how accessible it is.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like you don't have to be an incredible baker to enter.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: You just start, you just start entering stuff and you get to meet people on entry day.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes you get feedback from the judges.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you get head scratching feedback from the judges, but
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it's just a super fun thing.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so I grew up with a step grandma who competed and kind of taught me the ropes
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: from a young age and was kind of harsh about it,
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: but it served me in the long run.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so then about, gosh, it's been 10 years now, I believe I started, I did my first contest.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: I just entered three things, you know, just to kind of feel it out.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: And all three of them ribboned.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: I got two seconds and a fifth.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, oh,
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: okay you know either this is yeah I wasn't sure what to think I'm like oh he says
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: easier than I thought or I might actually be kind of good at making because your
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: friends and family are always like oh everything's fantastic but is it really you
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: know so it's kind of given me this avenue to try new things and meet new people and
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: over the years you know I've done pretty well and I've made some really amazing
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: friends and I just it's something I look forward to all year round
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: Do you remember what the three things you were, that you made in the first...
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they weren't even, I'd call them baking blight.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, it was like a granola bar and then some granola.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then they used to do this thing called the recipe challenge where everyone would get the same recipe.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of like the technical on the bake-off,
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: honestly,
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: which is what appealed to me is you all get the same recipe.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: You kind of have to interpret it.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so I got a second place on that.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: I got a second place on the bars and then I got a fifth place on the granola.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: And the funny thing with the cookies was I was always under this belief that you
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: had to enter things freshly baked that morning,
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: you know?
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I woke up early to do my final round and they didn't, they failed the dough.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what I did wrong or it was the heat.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: It failed.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm crying in the kitchen.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what do I do?
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I had ones that I had stored in the freezer like three weeks ago.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I'm going to save them just in case.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm so glad I did because that's what I ended up entering were three week old freezer cookies.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: And they still placed.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people do that.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like I know another woman and she enters like 82 contests and some of her stuff
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: comes in the freezer and she pulls it out the night before and that's what they enter.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I,
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: and that's what I've been telling people this year,
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: especially people were surprised to learn that I did that.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, yeah.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, well, but don't they taste?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like,
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: yeah,
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: you can kind of tell freezer goods from the fresh,
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: but that's what everybody else is doing.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you're the best of the freezer bunch, you know, and it works.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: How many categories did you enter this year?
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: This year I ended up doing 12,
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: I believe it was,
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: which I'm not,
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean,
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: there's people that show up with laundry baskets full of stuff,
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: and max out at 20.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: I doing 12 was a lot for me.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: I usually like to keep it in the single digits, but yeah, it went really well.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Half of them ribboned.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: I just smoked steaks for the first time.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: So it was a lot of fun this year.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: And what people maybe don't know,
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: I mean,
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: you said mentioned that you're an artist,
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: you make leather bound journals and leather goods.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: And what's your website for that?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: Because I want to make sure we tell people because your work's really cool.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: So my website is wayfaringgoods.com.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not Wayfair like that big furniture supply place or whatever.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's spelled W-A-Y-F-A-R-I-N-G goods.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because you're not doing this in a professional scope.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: No, baking is fun.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, you know, probably, you know, I don't know, forever.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's just for fun.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: I love what I do with my leather business.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: That has been something I've been doing full time for 15 years.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's really where my,
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to say,
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm as passionate about baking as I am about leather,
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: but I like keeping my leather as my business and my baking as my creative passion,
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: which I think is important.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: for professional creatives to have that thing without the pressure of selling.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: And let's talk about that for a second, because that's sort of uniquely American too.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: I think that this idea is like, Oh, she's making all this stuff.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: She's in competitive realm.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: She's doing really well.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: So she must be planning a bakery because we like,
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: don't really just allow ourselves to have these creative outlets without making
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: them into something.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: We feel the pressure from ourselves.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, oh, exactly.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I think,
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: I mean,
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: it's so important to have that creative passion that you don't have that pressure
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: behind it.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think, so I started my business right out of college.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: I could have either gone the professional photography route or did what I did.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think because I started young, I learned.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: how important it is to have that creative passion just for fun.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: I see a lot of my friends that have since pursued kind of similar art businesses,
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: and I see them now struggling with this,
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: like,
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: oh,
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: well,
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm also good at this,
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: so I should sell this,
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: and I should do that.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, no, you don't have to sell everything you make.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like,
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: if you're a creative person,
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: chances are you might be pretty good at a lot of different creative things.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and...
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: It stops being fun when, you know, like if I have a failure in the kitchen, I'm disappointed.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I get frustrated, but it's okay because it's not going anywhere.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to worry about someone, a customer coming.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to,
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: it's a different kind of failure versus the feeling when you're struggling with the business.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so I like having those two things very separate.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I can see that too.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: And also like this idea that because you're good at something or because you make something,
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: then it's becomes less a hobby and then a job.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes I struggle with that because I'm just cooking now between the
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: cookbook and the show and the Jason appearances and my blog.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like I'm just cooking all the time.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes like I feel another like I have to like videotape everything I'm doing.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: And the other day I was like, I'm not pulling out the video camera.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to cook something that could I?
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm just going to make these apple muffins because I have apples and I feel
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: like an apple muffin and I'm not going to videotape it.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not even going to write down the recipe.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I just was like, I just sat in the moment.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: I enjoyed the bake.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: I loved the smell it made my house.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: The muffins came out.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: I ate one.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: I gave one to the dog.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then I went and distributed them around the neighborhood and got rid of them
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: and came home and was like,
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: oh,
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: that was fun.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's the best.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's the best feeling.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: But I know exactly, even though I don't do my baking on a professional level,
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: just in the world of social media,
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: like you said,
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: you have this pressure to film everything you do and turn everything that you do
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: into some form of content.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that just sucks, sucks the fun out of it.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like, you know, sometimes it's fun, you know, but if you're not feeling it, like, don't do it.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: If, I don't know, you know, it's important to,
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like, obviously for you, it is part of your work.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: But is it, I mean, also, and I'm sort of like, I don't know, I'm sort of working through this too.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like, we give a lot away of ourselves as creators, as people in a social media space, right?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just demanding.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't want to like sound not grateful because I am because you build a
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: platform and people really dig your stuff and that's fun,
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: but also like trying to recognize what's real and what's not real sometimes.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Cause people see a version of you and,
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: and a version of what you do and they expect that over and over and over again.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: And,
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: It can be exhausting.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes you don't feel like delivering that.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: I don't,
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: and,
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: and then sometimes I feel like,
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: oh,
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: I have to put it out there because I put everything out there and then I do,
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: and it doesn't do well or whatever.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then I stress out about that.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, why, why?
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: well,
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: you and I had coffee and I think you,
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: well,
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: we met at the hottest day of the year and then you followed up and you're like,
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: would you ever want to have coffee?
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, yes, of course.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I also loved that you reached out to me because I do like bringing this
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: creative online life sometimes into the real life of you and I just sitting and
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: having a cup of coffee and talking about what we're into and what's fun and,
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: and,
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: I just,
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: I was,
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: I was appreciative that you reached out and I,
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: I wish more people would do that kind of in a real space because I think that's how
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: you grow and how you can help mentor others and help others find their path.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: Cause so many people have helped me along the way.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: My goodness.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I, I'm still so grateful you said yes, because it is super important.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that people are kind of surprised when,
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: others are willing to do stuff in person and meet in person.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: And even for my tiny little thing that I do at the state fair,
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: I met people online and they were worried about bugging me or asking me questions.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, why?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe not, I love talking about that kind of stuff.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: If I can help
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: somebody else like, well, it's a competition.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like,
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: so like,
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: yeah,
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: like it's better for all of us in the long run,
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: if we're encouraging others to do it and get better and help the people where we
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: can with stuff that we've learned along the way.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: And like, I personally enjoy doing that.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah,
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: that's why it was so exciting to get to sit and talk with you and,
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: meet someone else of the food,
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: you know?
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: And just learn from each other.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: So what's next for you, Nicole?
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: Have you thought about that?
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: All the time.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: I know again,
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: after having done the show and now I've been very fortunate since the show came out
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: with opportunities that have come my way.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: you know, you never know if anyone's going to notice or pay attention or anything.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I've honestly been quite overwhelmed with the amount of stuff that I have done.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so people, you know, they expect the bakery, they expect this, they expect that.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that is not, that's not on my realm.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what I'm thinking at all.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: I long-term dream, short-term dream.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: I always tell people I would like to do a cookbook.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: That was something I thought of wanting to do years.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean,
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: that's kind of always been in the back of my head because I enjoy the recipe
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: development portion of baking.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of where my strong suit is.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I enjoy the most.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: So,
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: obviously I'm going to be continuing on with my leather business as always,
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: gearing up for holiday season right now.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: So that's, you know, the main part of my life.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm just going to continue to...
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: create recipes,
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: share that,
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: share the state fair knowledge,
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: and just be willing to embrace and be open to whatever might come from it.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: All right, let's do something fun.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: Are you ready for fun?
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: Always.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: I have like five to 10 questions.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see how it goes.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: Just random kind of rapid fire questions.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: They're not hard.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: They're all about you.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: They're not hard.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: Here's number one.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: What is the first bake you remember making yourself?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Cupcakes.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Cute.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like as a kid?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's so basic, but that's... Yeah.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Strawberry...
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Cupcakes with Swiss meringue buttercream.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yum.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: That was my first quote unquote real bake that I did.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: When you go to a potluck, what do you typically bring?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Macarons.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, fancy.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: They're easy to share.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: They look impressive, but they're pretty easy to whip up.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: What is the first thing you eat from a Halloween candy bucket?
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: that's funny snickers popped into my head first but reasons are my favorite but i
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: guess snickers would be my first okay i love that rhesus is the number one popular
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: candy you probably know that yeah yeah uh what uh is the restaurant that you've
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: been to more than any other well green scene
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: since moving up to Walker, that would be, yeah.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: I love the green scene here in town.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: And you live in Walker.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: I should mention that.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: What's your most used pan?
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: I have a little sauce pan and I will shove anything I can into it even if it's not supposed to fit.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: I have one of those too and it's funny.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it doesn't fit.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: I just did that last one with some jam.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: It was a poor decision, but it worked.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: But you still loved your pan.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, this is your last question in the final round of the rapid fire questioning.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: What's an existing cookbook you wish you had written?
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: i'm looking at all my cookbooks i know it's a hard one that is a hard one i i well
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: it's funny because i feel like picking any of them i'm not worthy of any of them
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: but i have they're all old vintage ones like i have this rose what's her last name
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: burn bomb levy burn bomb
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: I use a lot of her books.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: I wish I had the skill and the ability to write something like that.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know that that Cake Bible book that she wrote is having its 35th anniversary this year?
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: I don't see that.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: I can't believe it because I have all like the real old vintage ones.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so cool that it still has stood the test of time.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: No, I love that you have those.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Nicole, I hope people will follow you on Instagram at 10,000bakes.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to for sure have you on Jason's show next summer so we get a chance to
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: connect at the fair again.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: Wonderful.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: And we've also been doing reviews of Great British Bake Off with Bradley and Dawn on MyTalk107.1.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: People should follow you and you're making really cool Halloween stuff right now.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: We're having fun over here.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's amazing.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well,
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: when you're going to be coming down to town next or not downtown,
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: down to town next,
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: give me a shout and we'll have coffee again.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: It was fun.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, definitely.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: Totally.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Nicole.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you spending time with us today.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk soon.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: Bye-bye.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: Bye.