A birthday cake I made for a friend turned into a near disaster. Emily’s birthday cake: matcha buttercream, vanilla, and strawberry compote — a flop, quite literally. But here’s the thing about Emily’s birthday cake: God always prepares us, even in the chaos of last-minute baking and barely getting it done.

For Heather’s 22nd birthday, I baked a Jellycat-inspired Victoria sponge — not the prettiest cake I’ve made, but one of the most memorable. This post is part of Cakes for Others, a personal series where I share the cakes I’ve made for the people I love. It’s about flavor, memory, and how baking became a way to say thank you, and I love ya!

This fall, I hosted my third bakery pop-up in Virginia Beach—a weekend filled with flour-dusted countertops, prayer, watercoloring, and 220 cookies baked from scratch. From staying up until 1:30 a.m. with my sister to discovering which desserts touched people’s hearts, this pop-up reminded me why I bake: to create, to love, and to glorify God through every act of care.