We were lucky to catch up with Elaina Aelvoet recently and have shared our conversation below.
Elaina, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I’ve always baked, mostly cupcakes and drop cookies, just your basic cakes, nothing fancy. I saw some cookie decorators on Instagram and thought that looks like it would be fun to do! It’s NOT as easy as it looks! I tried tons of cookie and royal icing recipes until I found my perfect combination. It took lots of time, patience and countless hours on YouTube to get where I am today. There is nothing I would have done to speed up the process. It’s a labor of love, and it just takes a lot of practice. I’m still learning and perfecting my skills.
Elaina, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m originally from Canada, and have lived in Texas for almost 26 years. My business name is my homage to my roots. I would bring baked goods into work for everyone to enjoy. More and more people kept telling me I should start selling my baked goods. I gave out cookies for free the first time in March 2015. I made my first sale in May 2015. I was so excited! I practiced decorating cookies every chance I could and on December 1st 2015, Cookies & Cupcakes, Eh! became a reality, and I published my Facebook and Instagram page. Even though I live in Texas, Canada will always be home to me!
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
When I first started selling cookies and seeing that there was a little bit of extra money coming in, my two girls were just starting to get interested in gymnastics. In case you don’t know, gymnastics is expensive. And competitive gymnastics is even more expensive! Times that by two, you get where I’m going here. As their love of the sport grew, all the extra money went towards gymnastics. I loved watching them grow and compete, which made me love making cookies even more, knowing I was also fulfilling their dreams, as well as my own. Now they are grown up and doing their own thing. My focus has shifted from gymnastics to travel, where my goal is to hike all the National Parks in the United States.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Baking is my side hustle. I am the Practice Manager at a Veterinary clinic as a full time career. Last year we partnered with a corporation and it increased my responsibility and work load considerably. I was working late, coming home exhausted, and having no time or motivation to do any cookie decorating. I became distressed as my side business that I worked so hard to build up, was now failing as I just didn’t have the time or energy to continue. I lost some followers on social media. After a few months of settling into my new responsibilities, I was able to manage my time better and get back to focusing on my decorating. The corporation I work for even bought cookies from my little side business as promotional items-that was really exciting for me!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: cookiesandcupcakeseh
- Facebook: Facebook.com/cookiesandcupcakeseh