I replaced my architectural technologist salary with a Home Bakery.

Not because I had some bold entrepreneurial vision — but because I couldn’t afford proper groceries and my anxiety was spiraling.
I had worked hard for that bachelor’s degree in architecture.

It was the respectable path.
The impressive one.
The one everyone approved of.

But the reality looked very different from the dream. My salary barely covered rent and my student loan, and I remember standing in the grocery store doing mental math, realizing I could only afford peanut butter sandwiches for the week.

At the same time, I was lying awake night after night, completely exhausted but unable to sleep. A doctor prescribed anxiety medication, and I remember sitting on the edge of my bed, staring at the pill in my hand, thinking, “Is this what the rest of my life is going to feel like?”

One evening, after attending a birthday party without cake (that’s gotta be illegal, right?), I baked cupcakes to satisfy my craving. They were SO good. My housemates and other friends loved them and said I should sell them.

So I started small. One dozen cupcakes per week.

I reached out to friends, family, and colleagues. Slowly, it grew. Within months, I was baking a few hundred treats every week.

One Thursday night, while frosting cupcakes at 1am — using a borrowed hand mixer and an ugly yellow mixing bowl — I felt something I hadn’t felt in months: calm.

That was the moment I realized it was easier for me to bake through the night than to survive a single workday at my job.

Then we moved to Cape Town, and I had to start again from scratch.

No network.
No customer base.
Just $40,000 in student debt, my husband earning $700 a month, and sleeping on single mattresses on the floor for the first year of our marriage.

I printed 200 Valentine’s Day flyers and handed them out around our neighborhood, convinced this would bring in orders.
Not a single one came in.

It sucked. I was crushed.

But that experience forced me to think differently.

Instead of trying to build my own customer base one person at a time, I asked myself whether I could partner with someone who already had a customer base. I began pitching my baked goods to coffee shops.

Initially, all of them said no, but later, one changed their mind and said yes — and that one partnership turned into several more over the next few months!

Within three months, I was earning more than I had in my architectural technologist job.

Within a year, I was supplying multiple coffee shops and offices, and baking for direct customers too.

My home bakery had become my full-time income.

But replacing my salary didn’t mean I had mastered business…

I was still undercharging because I doubted my value, still saying yes to orders I didn’t enjoy because I was afraid of disappointing people and losing out on money, and still overworking because I believed that being constantly available was the only way to retain customers.

When I lost a major client and 70% of my income overnight, I realized that talent, effort, and ambition weren’t enough. If I wanted my business to be less stressful and sustainable, I needed a real business strategy.

That’s when I began studying marketing and entrepreneurship through books, podcasts, and online courses…
… I learned how to think and problem-solve like an entrepreneur. This transformed me from a scared and unsure “I’m just a home baker” to a grounded, resilient business owner.
… I discovered how to market my baking in a way that caught people’s attention and resonated with them, but that also felt good to me instead of fake or cringey.
… I figured out how to price properly so I wasn’t overworked and underpaid,
… how to design my menu so that my work energized me instead of draining me, and
… how to build a steady income through supplying deals with repeat clients.
… Eventually, I even learned how to show up on the first page of Google so new customers could find me easily — instead of me constantly chasing orders.

For the first time, my home bakery felt stable instead of fragile.

Around that time, other home bakers began reaching out to me.

They weren’t struggling because their baking wasn’t good. They were struggling because they were underpricing, overworking, copying trends, and waiting to feel confident before taking their baking seriously.

A BIG part of this? They thought they needed a big, beautiful kitchen kitted out with expensive baking equipment to be successful.

I saw myself in them BIG time and knew that I couldn’t gate-keep what I had learned and experienced.

So I started teaching on my blog and Instagram what I had learned — not just how to bake better, but how to build a business that works that I fiercely believed in (even without a gorgeous, fully-equipped kitchen or cute, Instagrammable porch pickup).

What worked? Mindset BEFORE Strategy.

1. Re-building belief in myself: no amount of visibility on social media would sell my baked goods if I was carrying old, sabotaging beliefs about myself forward.

2. Identifying what made me valuable: this prevented me from bending over backwards for customers and undercharging, which is where so many home bakers go wrong.

3. Problem solving like a business owner. I learned how to process and navigate anything life throws at my business – with resilience and calm tenacity.

When a home baker comes to me saying she’s not getting enough orders and “nothing is working,” even though her baking is delicious, I don’t start by telling her to post more often on social media so she’s more visible.

I start by exploring what she believes about WHO she is (invisibility, people pleasing, and burnout start here) and what makes her valuable (undercharging and burnout start here).

THEN we get into marketing in a way that makes your business stand out and attract customers (things like choosing a powerful niche, building a brand customers feel connected to, strategic local partnerships, and how to get found online). Marketing strategies then finally WORK because the mindset portion helps my clients build a business run from instead of driven by fear.

I’ve coached over 500 home backers through this process, and here’s a sentiment many of them hold: “In HBP I began to feel EMPOWERED to take hold of my business. I no longer questioned if I was good enough. I’ve built confidence in my knowledge and ability to share my sweet treats and as a result I’ve made so much more money than I imagined was possible.”

I know what it feels like to love baking deeply and still wonder if you’re allowed to build a life around it.
And I also know what happens when a home baker stops apologizing for their ambition, builds with structure instead of panic, and finally trusts the value of who they are and what they create.

Their income changes.
Their peace changes.
Their identity changes.

If you’ve been waiting for permission to take your baking seriously — this is it.

You don’t need more talent.
You don’t need a bigger kitchen or more equipment.
You need deep trust in your value — and a clear, proven path forward.
I’d love to help you find it.

Sign up for my Home Bakery Masterclass here →

I’ll see you there!

Hugs & donuts,

Aurelia