My First

First times are always great, right? First roller coaster, first trip overseas, baby's first steps (or so I've heard, not that I can remember my own).

Yesterday was my first time baking cupcakes from scratch. I even made the frosting on my own. My absolute favorite- red velvet with brown sugar cream cheese frosting.

This might surprise most people, but I don't bake. It's so easy to buy desserts. I love food and I love to cook. But baking was always out of my reach.

So, what would then compel me to start a dessert catering business with my best friend Abeer? Well, she is an excellent baker. She makes delicious treats and is an talented decorator, after taking classes a few years back. She's practiced this skill many times over. I am the apprentice, she is the master.

So, she's the baker, and I'm the big mouth. Mashalah she's also got a great business mind, so this seems a very imbalanced partnership. But Inshalah, with time, she finds that I am as much a contribution to this partnership as she is.

So, with some duas, and some resistance from naysayers (my own mom), we've registered our new business: Haute Cakes. We' currently working on the website and business card, but you can check out the facebook site we've created for it. At the end of this month we have our first gig; it's not paying, but will be a great opportunity to get the word out. We are baking 300 cupcakes favors for the Wafa House fundraiser. It's a wonderful cause and I hope many people make it out. Click on the word fundraiser for details.

So that brings me back to my first time. It went a lot better than I anticipated, and it wasn't a disaster, thank you very much. I made the cupcakes for a dinner party, and my husband honestly thought they were great. But what other people thought I may never know, as my hosts and friends are probably too polite to be brutally honest.