1 ½ cup of flour, 2 cups of sugar, 1 cup of milk, 2 eggs, ¾ cup cacao powder, a splash of vanilla and some salt. At this point, I’ve made the Hershey’s chocolate cake recipe more times than I can count.

Although most people dislike overcast days, I love them. The feel of a rainy day, with clouds draping over the sun and dewy drops falling off of flower petals, mixed with the smell of rich, chocolaty cake and buttery, sweet frosting in the kitchen makes my family contagiously happy. This is when I most like to bake, but I’ll bake in any weather and in any mood.

Some things you just can’t explain; maybe I love baking because the smile on someone’s face when they blow out their candles is energizing, or maybe it’s because when the perfect rosette is pipped, my day is satisfied.

I have been cooking my whole life, starting with cookies and matzo ball soup with my grandmothers as a toddler. Because I was in the kitchen so much, I quickly developed a passion for food and creating art from it.

As a child, I dreamed of becoming a baker in Paris and making anything from cakes to macarons to perfectly decorated sugar cookies. The idea of a little shop with light pink fixtures and a big window with a view of the Eiffel Tower was exhilarating. I thought of cases filled with perfectly piped cupcakes and soft, fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth croissants almost every day.

As I grew older, I did more than dream. I started my own bakery (not in Paris, but in California), raised money for nonprofits, and more. And somewhere along the line, my education and my passion began to merge.

From a Dream to a Business

In 2019 (age 10) I had the idea to start an at-home bakery called Birdie’s Bakery. I made a logo and stickers, but I didn’t really know how to run a business so it was hard for me to reach out to customers. I kept baking for fun, and in 2021 I baked my mom’s birthday cake. She sent a picture of it to an MMS parent, Erin Flynn, who loved it and wanted to order cupcakes for her son’s birthday.

So, Birdie’s Bakery was up and running yet again! I quickly started an Instagram account and started taking orders from it (@birdiesbakery). In fact, if you scroll all the way down to the start of my page, you will see my mom’s birthday cake and the cute skateboard cupcakes for the Flynn family.

At school, we work towards learning how to be productive and safe online. I have used much of what I’ve learned during these classes to benefit my page by keeping it safe and professional. I couldn’t have started or been running my business the same way I am without social media. I am still learning how to make successful posts, but my account is slowly growing and improving and I’m learning more about how the algorithms work. Technology (especially social media) has had many negative connotations recently, but it can also be an amazing tool.

So social media is one of the reasons my business is successful, but my customers are another.

I have found that the Marin Montessori community has offered amazing networking opportunities. I have connected with many families through word-of-mouth from others. Not only have parents ordered from me, but so have my teachers!

I am lucky enough to learn from such amazing people, and they are constantly showing me that they will always be there for me and want me to succeed. The Junior High offers classes and opportunities for students to explore their personal interests in many ways. One way I’ve used this structure for my business is during Guild time, a block of time during which groups of about eight students get to improve and run a non-academic part of the school.

I’m in the Micro-Economy Guild, which gave me the chance to teach my classmates how to price items fairly while leaving room for your product to make a profit. At school, we are encouraged to be independent and make mistakes (which I have done a lot while running my bakery) to learn from them.

I experienced this last year during Guilds when we overpriced some products, which led us to lose money and teach me that for the next sale, the prices needed to be lowered. Sure enough, at our next stand, we almost sold out!

MMS is such a supportive community, and I couldn’t be more grateful that I have so much support for my small business. I have learned and still have a lot to learn about marketing and networking, and I have new plans for them in the future.

From a Business to a Cause

Not only do I love running my own business, but one of my other favorite things to do is to help others. I love animals, people, and various other causes. In the past, I have used 100 percent of my bake sale profits to donate to organizations such as MakeAWish, OnceUponARoom, No Kid Hungry, ALS treatment, cancer awareness, veterans, and animal shelters.

I’ve known my whole life that I wanted to use my baking to benefit others, so last spring I also started volunteering for a non-profit called Cake4Kids. This organization connects bakers to local foster programs to make celebratory treats for foster youth. They have locations all around the country, and conveniently one in Marin! I enjoy baking desserts for Cake4Kids because it combines my interest in baking with supporting kids my age who may be in a tough situation.

Many of the recipients have never had a birthday cake, so getting to be someone who makes them a little happier on a special day means so much. Another aspect of Cake4Kids is that the baker and recipient never get to meet, and all the information the baker gets about the child is their name. I feel like this makes the whole process more meaningful because it is about helping people and brightening their day no matter who they are or what they’ve experienced.

When I first started baking for Cake4Kids, I made a video game cake for a boy turning 13. All I could think about when creating it was that I was baking for someone only a year younger than I was, and my parents had given me a cake all 14 years of my life. He almost definitely didn’t have that experience. I could have been baking him his first birthday cake, but I had already had so many. I took all the time I needed to make sure this treat was above and beyond, complete with an Xbox controller hand sculpted from a rice krispy treat because I knew he deserved it and that my time was best used to make him happy.

A few months later I made a unicorn cake for a four-year-old girl in Sausalito, and my mind went back to the video game cake. That boy may have never had a cake before, but this girl was so young that I really wanted to make something she could remember as a happy childhood memory. The unicorn cake is now one of my favorite cakes I’ve made! I hope these small gestures impacted these kids as much as baking for them has impacted me.

My Takeaways

I am excited to continue baking; I hope to do it for as long as possible! If I had to give one piece of advice to a young person starting a business or really just doing something they love, it would be to take all the opportunities given to you. Once you’ve established that you want to grow a passion, all people want to do is support you.

As my business grew, I got more opportunities to share my story and passion (like this article!), and I’m excited to see where my business and charity work takes me!

If you have any questions or want tips on starting a small business, please don’t hesitate to reach out over email (@jacquelyn.lily.smith@gmail.com) or over Instagram (@birdiesbakery). If you would like to order a treat, please refer to my Instagram page. Thank you so much!