LESSONS IN CONFIDENCE
WE LEARNED FROM BAKING

Stella here, founder & CEO of Stellar Eats. This might surprise you but… I am not a baker.

Cooking for the people I love has always brought me so much joy, but I always felt intimidated when it came to baking. Cooking was always more of a creative expression to me, whereas baking (after many failed attempts over the years) seemed more scientific.

Even though baking intimidated me, I still loved it. There’s something so gratifying about pulling fresh cookies out of the oven and sharing in the joy of food with those around you.

After hundreds of failed baked goods, I realized what I wanted for you. I wanted to help people experience the joy of baking without the guesswork. I wanted to take away the fear around experimentation and have the kitchen be a place of creativity and confidence.

My business partner Emma and I have hand-crafted every Stellar Eats product recipe. Through lots of failures, bites that still haunt our dreams and may scar us for life and some tears (but even more laughs), we fumbled our way through test after test. Through these many trials, we learned a couple of things about baking...and as it happens, about perseverance too:

1. NOTHING IS UNSALVAGEABLE

We mean it. Mushy cake? Make cake batter balls and dip those babies in chocolate. Burnt bread? Scrape it off and turn that bad boy into bread crumbs! Crumbly cookies? Ice cream topper!

A huge obstacle that people face in the kitchen is the fear that they will “mess something up”. Well, guess what? We’ve messed up in just about every way there is to mess up, and somehow we’ve still ended up with some delicious food.

Fear has no place in your kitchen. Sometimes you just need to take a deep breath, remind yourself that you’re a capable individual, take another taste, and add some more salt.

2. EVERYONE’S OVEN IS DIFFERENT

Get to know yours. Become BFFs. When a recipe says to bake something at 350°F, yours might require 400°F. When things don’t bake properly, it’s going to be okay. Sometimes you just need to adjust the temperature according to yours. We often spend time looking up various recipes for the same type of baked good and then make an informed guess based on the particular oven we are using.

Also, a ~metaphor~ for life: everyone’s oven is different. What turns someone’s dial all the way up might just not do it for you. If someone doesn’t like something you made, you can’t take it personally. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad baker or a bad chef. I mean, there are some people out there who hate chocolate! You can’t make everyone happy all the time. It’s just not possible... and that’s okay.

3. TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS

Don’t be afraid to get creative. If you have an idea for a dish, a new business, or even a flavour combination, we’d urge you to test it out! The best ideas are born out of the most unlikely experiments. Starting a business has taught us that people will call you crazy for a lot of reasons. Some people will tear your idea down in any way they can. If you think you’re onto something great, chances are that you’re right.

And on the very off chance that you’re not...there’s only one way to find out. Never underestimate the power of trial and error. We’ve made loads of mistakes but we wouldn’t take any back. Our mistakes are the reason we’re here today, bringing healthy baking mixes into the homes of people like you!

4. PIVOT WHEN NECESSARY

Did you know our biscuit and scone mix started as a bread mix? We tried and tried and tried some more but every time this recipe came out of the oven we were like, “WHY does this still taste like a buttery biscuit?!” So guess what...we made a buttery biscuit! Did it feel weird and kind of random? Yes. Did it work out in the end because as it turns out, people love biscuits?! YES.

Don’t be afraid to admit when you’re wrong and switch up your direction.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY...

The best life lesson we’ve been taught from the kitchen is learning to remain calm within the chaos. It doesn’t matter if you accidentally start the mixer on high and 10 pounds of almond flour go flying into the air (true story) or whether you work really hard to create something only to hear negative feedback. You grab the broom or you go back to the drawing board. You brush it off and start again. We’re more resilient than we think we are.