Life & Work with Patricia Escobar

Today we’d like to introduce you to Patricia Escobar.

Hi Patricia, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I wish I can say I started baking when I was five years old and/or watched my mom or grandma bake in the kitchen. But that’s not the case. I entered the baking scene when I graduated high school. My first bake was a banana bread. We had overripened bananas, and I remember watching something on TV and someone mentioning the darker the bananas, the tastier the banana bread. I was on a bit of hiatus with my social life, trying to figure out who I was as a person leaving my teenage years, so I became a homebody. I had all this time in my hands, and I thought, why not try my hands in baking? In my unbiased opinion, that banana bread was pretty amazing. It was soft and moist. And throughout the years, I’ve continued to perfect it with a secret ingredient: Vanilla Pudding. But I digress. After that first baking experience, it opened a new world for me. I’m a dessert person, and being able to create something so scrumptious and sweet was pretty incredible. Finding new recipes and being able to share it with people who enjoy eating them as much as I enjoyed making them helped my journey to start my small baking business.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I think any small business owner can agree that one of the most difficult things is the inconsistency. Just getting the word out there for people other than loved ones to order from you. Sometimes it gets to the point where you start to doubt if you’re even good or if your loved ones are just supporting you because they love you and not because they love your work. How do you market yourself when you have doubts? At that point that’s when I had to decide if I was doing this for the approval of others or was I doing it because I love to bake. It’s tough prepping for pop-up events baking dozens of cookies and pastries, only to sell less than half of what you brought. With the goodies that don’t get sold, I donate them to church events, knowing they will be indulged. My fellow baker friend said to me that baked goods are a luxury and not everyone will spend money on them. I totally agree. So I learned when doing events or personalized orders, I have to think that the finite of people that do want baked goods should be given something amazing. That each bake I do, no matter what or who for, should be the best thing I have baked thus far.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
When being in baking/pastry business, it’s tough setting yourself apart from other bakers/pastry chefs. What’s so different about your chocolate chip cookie that will get someone to order from you instead of just getting a dozen from a grocery store for half the price? It’s the heart you bring to each bake. I’ve learned a lot since I opened my small baking business and the thing that can easily be forgotten is the amount of effort you put in each bake. After baking for more than ten years, it can become second nature and you just start ticking things of the list of what to do next. But if you really put your heart in your craft and what you love, every moment is beautiful. When I put my soul into each bake, every time I open the oven and pull out the tray of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, I know it’ll be the best cookie because I gave it my all and I was authentic. With that being said, of course I have to come up with different flavors to showcase what makes me different than other bakers. For example, for any chocolate dessert I bake, I add a dash of Bailey’s Irish Cream. Or with cakes, instead of brushing them with syrup glaze after bake, I soak them in glazed donut syrup that are intended for drinks. The best thing I’ve learned throughout my baking journey is figuring out ways to elevate a traditional dessert into something special with just a few added ingredients.

Pricing:

• Classic Cookies $2.75/each or $30/dozen: Butter, Chocolate Chip, Confetti, Sugar, Peanut Butter, Oatmeal, Shortbread
• Gourmet Cookie $3.25/each or $36/dozen: Crinkle, Elevated Chocolate Chunk, Florentine Lace Chocolate, Lemon, Lavender, Shortbread, Loaded Brownie, Potato Chips, Red Velvet, Sumbitches
• Banana Bread $25/loaf
• Cake/Cookie Truffles $4/small box of 2 or $16/half a dozen
• Tea Cakes $24/half a dozen

Contact Info:

• Website: www.flourinbloombakery.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/flourinbloombakery

Image Credits
Patricia Escobar