About ME
Hi
For those of you who are new here and don’t know me, my name is Alessandra, but my close friends
and family call me Sanj (pronounced sah-nj).
I have had my little feet planted in the kitchen for as long as I can remember. I am first generation
Italian American and come from a long line of family chefs and bakers (at least they are in my eyes).
My life has always been centered around cooking and baking. One of my earliest memories in the
kitchen is learning to fold dough and make fig filling with my great grandmother at four years old.
Whether it be celebrating a birthday, gathering for the holidays, or plain old “come over and hang”
there has always been an abundance of homemade food and sweets on the table.
The more time I spent in the kitchen, the more I fell in love with cooking and baking, despite many,
many failed attempts. I vividly remember baking my first carrot cake many Thanksgivings ago, when I
used salt instead of sugar (this of course was completely unintentional, a classic case of Italian
immigrant grandparents keeping salt in an old ceramic jar that said “sugar” on it). Of course, you can
imagine how that went… But this didn’t stop me from continuing to learn and experiment.
When the pandemic hit, I had the opportunity to spend unlimited time at home with my sisters, which
was a rare occurrence in our house. It was during this period that I started to get creative in the
kitchen, because I finally had people to bake for! With the help of my crafty stepfather and nonno, I had
my own personal kitchen to bake and create in no time (major shoutout to the handymen). After this,
my business began to take off and my sisters helped me create an Instagram account to showcase my
creations.
I began to find my passion baking cakes as well as experimenting with different buttercreams. Turning
buttercream into art was something that came naturally to me, as a life-long artist and prior art major
at Marist College whose expertise was in drawing and painting. To me, it’s extremely fulfilling to be able
to pursue my two passions simultaneously- baking and creating art.
I’m incredibly proud of myself for being entirely self-taught and gradually growing this lil bakery biz of
mine while balancing multiple other jobs. Despite making numerous mistakes and facing bouts of self-
doubt, armed only with a single stand mixer, no dishwasher, and lacking any background in baking or
owning a business, I believe none of this success would have been possible without the unwavering love,
support, and encouragement from my amazing friends and family. Their belief in me has been the
driving force behind the blossoming of my business into what it is today.
I am forever grateful to all the people in my life that were able to see this before I was able to envision it
myself. To the ones who wiped my tears, the ones who helped me wash loads and loads and LOADS of
dishes, the ones who taste tested endless batches of cookies and cake, and finally, the ones who knew I
was destined to be great and weren’t afraid to tell me when my bakes needed a lil more finessing, thank
you. Y’all know who you are. And to those who doubted me, thank you for igniting the fire.
♡
