Background

Many moons ago, when I was a high school history teacher I used to frequent a Scandinavian bakery, and became good friends with the owner. She would let me draw out elaborate cake sketches and instructions of what I wanted for my orders. After some time, she told me she was opening a second location and asked me to come help her run it. Even though I didn't have any experience in the baking world, I agreed because I knew I had the organizational skills and temperament to manage a business (I figured it couldn't be much harder than teaching world history to teenagers).  

I quickly enrolled in food safety classes, as well as pastry courses to better understand the inner workings of the bakery.  More than any of what I learned from those classes was the years of helpful tips and tricks of experienced bakers and cake decorators. I managed that bakery for six years before I "retired" to start a family. I decided to use my experience to start my own at-home bakery, that worked around my kids' schedules.  

After a number of years, I realized the thing that made my business unique was the same thing that I had written about in my college entrance essay years earlier, and the reason I majored in history to begin with. I loved learning about people who were raised in a culture or country other than their parents' countries of origin, otherwise known as 3rd Culture Kids.  The 3rd Culture is an amalgamation of these two cultures, but not deemed authentic by either.  Neroli Baking Co. uniquely captures the 3rd Culture culinary experience by providing flavor profiles that honor the cultures of our parents with a modern interpretation and aesthetic.