It was never just cake
it wasn't even about baking differently, but about seeing it differently.
If you’re reading this,
you were part of my journey at some point.
Back when I was running my cake decorating supply business, Zoi&Co,
you chose to follow along.
Thank you for that.
Really.
This is my return. But not to the same place.
Baking has always been part of my life.
Over the past nine years, I’ve lived it in many forms.
Working in bakeries,
becoming a self-employed cake decorator with the goal of opening my own shop,
and then, unexpectedly, running a cake supply store for five years.
At the time, it all made sense.
I was deep in the niche.
Building something within it.
Surrounded by an amazingly supportive community.
And yet, something felt off.
The closest way I can describe it is this:
It felt like being in a situationship with what I was doing.
There was familiarity.
Even moments of excitement.
But it still felt… surface-level.
Not empty.
But not fully alive either.
Which was confusing to me, because I’ve loved baking for as long as I can remember.
It was the first thing I ever tried on my own.
The first thing that felt like mine.
And still, I felt like I was missing something.
Despite all the effort I was putting in,
I felt like I was only ever touching the surface of it all.
Like receiving a hug from someone who isn’t fully there.
You can feel that.
And for a long time, I ignored it.
Because everything looked right.
I had built something that worked.
Something real.
So I stayed.
Longer than I probably should have.
Until my body stepped in.
Not subtly.
It pushed me into a heavy burnout.
The kind that forces you to stop.
I got quiet.
I got still.
And in that stillness,
something shifted.
In the way I saw cake.
In the way I moved through the process.
It wasn’t just about the end product anymore.
Something in me became more interested in how things were happening.
The decisions I was making.
What I was noticing, or not noticing.
I started to realize that what pulled me into baking
was never just the outcome,
but the interaction with the process.
And without realizing it,
I started paying attention to different things.
The simple, deeper parts of baking.
Like the similarities between the things that shape a cake
and the things that shape anything we make.
Attention.
Timing.
Adjustment.
Patience.
The willingness to try,
to fail,
to correct,
and to try again.
The way something holds together, or doesn’t.
The way small decisions change the entire outcome.
The way you think you know what you’re doing,
until gravity knocks on your door
and condensation answers back.
And I realized,
I hadn’t really been paying attention to baking itself.
Not fully.
Because it wasn’t just something I was making.
It was showing me how things are built, step by step.
I just couldn’t see it clearly back then.
Maybe this is just another version of the craft I’m moving through.
Maybe it will shift again.
But for now,
this feels different.
It feels deeper.
More intentional.
Like it’s coming from a place
I’m only just beginning to understand.
This is where I’m starting from.