My dear friends,
I am finally starting my blog and I am so excited about it! Yuupppiiii! Hurray!
You might be wondering, why didn’t I start it sooner? Or why am I starting one at this point at all? And also why am I so happy about it? It is just a blog after all, right?
Well, let me tell you, that even those who know me well or follow me on social media for the past 10 years, have no idea how long I have been wanting to write my journey for and how difficult such an easy thing turned out to be, in my peculiar case.
The funniest thing is that no one would even believe, if I would tell why it took so long for me to arrive to this point. So I’ll skip this story for now, and all the hurdles and bumps I went through, especially due to online scammers and hackers, incompetent contractors and service providers and technical difficulties I had to face over these years. Nothing of which made me lose the grasp and desire to keep going.
So here I am, some years later, happy like a child but with a bunch of lessons learnt. Looking back, I can only see the amazing journey it has been and how much I grew both as a person and as a businesswoman.
For those who don’t know me or my story at all, here it goes as short as I possibly can.
I was born in Lisbon, grew up in a town in the center of Portugal, moved back to Lisbon, finished my International Relations university degree and started to explore the planet and all its corners, even if it’s round.
I’ve lived in Italy, in the USA, in New Zealand, shortly in Australia and in several German cities. These were my home bases, but since I love to travel most continents have been partially or totally ‘scanned’ by me.
My life changed considerably when I married – as it happens to most women (I won’t discuss this topic now, although this is also an interesting topic to talk about in a later post). Kids came along and my career – as a development project manager – came to an end. However, I do love to work, to constantly learn and experiment new things and develop my mental and physical skills every single day.
So, after 3 years of being a full-time dedicated housewife and mom, I decided to ignite my entrepreneurial skills and start my own business in Germany, where I was living at the time. It was an adventure I don’t recommend to anyone that I truly like.
I went to London to take my first cupcake and cake design classes. I passed the U.S. Wilton Cake Decorating School Master degree, read dozens of books and took many dozens of little classes both live and online to learn everything I needed to be the best I could in these cake baking and cake decorating areas.
I then, basically started my own business in a new field I had never worked before, in a foreign country (quite bureaucratic as well!), where I barely could speak and understand the language and with 2 little kids to take care of, on top of it all. It was insane! The first 5 years I slept almost nothing to be able to juggle it all, including learning the language, the German market and the business overall. But my desire to make it all work and to learn more and more was bigger than any possible hurdle.
Some wrinkles later, I am proud to say that my shop was a huge success. I added a cake school, and it was an even bigger success! And that’s how I became a cake expert, a Youtuber & Instagrammer and above all a baking teacher, which I love so much.
I’ve actually always loved desserts, cakes and chocolates. That is why I have chosen this area to work and specialize myself in, while there was still a market niche in Heidelberg (Germany) in this area as well. And why not do professionally what I’ve always enjoyed doing privately so much?
However, after 10 years of baking and decorating thousands of cakes, cupcakes, cake-pops, cookies and macarons, I’ve found out that I am intolerant to almost every major ingredient involved in traditional baking: gluten, milk, eggs, some nuts … and the list goes on. This was a huge shock to me! I felt lost and totally unmotivated. I would have to learn everything all over again using totally new ingredients, I knew nothing about.
At that time, I had also just moved back to Lisbon with my 2 kids and Corona hit us, obliging everyone to stay at home. I took the opportunity to experiment a new way of baking and cooking and also decided to close my school in Germany – despite being a big success– so I could focus on my new life in Portugal and my new project, which is…
… transforming all my favorite traditional cake and dessert recipes into healthy ones. I have discovered Functional Confectionery and that it is possible to substitute unhealthy ingredients like white sugar, dairy or wheat flour with other ingredients that are nutritious and actually good for our bodies. I have been exploring this area for the last 2 years, and have been amazed ever since. It’s not an easy path, because all the proportions and ratios change.
But all those lost hours of experimentation, failed attempts, waste of money on trashed ingredients and failed recipes and many frustrating moments were worth it, though. The benefits of healthy eating, including healthy desserts are real and I am proof of that.
And it’s amazing – at least I was totally amazed at- how delicious healthy confectionery desserts actually are!
It’s time to share all my discoveries, many healthy dessert recipes, and crucial information with you about healthy baking!
I hope I can help the many of you, who are also going through some health issues, whether it is food intolerance or allergies, including diabetes, or simply want to stay fit and healthy without feeling guilty or having to give up on the sweet side of life!
Please let me know if there is something specific you want me to write about or what are the topics you wish me to explain to you the most.
In our next posts, I will explain more about what functional confectionery is and how it works.
So, stay tuned… for your own sake! 😉
Have a great sweet week,
Leonor.