The Next Great Baker: Season 3

A could weeks ago, I was watching one of my favorite shows, the "Next Great Baker." I know not a lot of people are into this show, but I love baking and wish I could be a good enough baker to work with Buddy at Carlo's Bakery! A girl can dream, right? I would bake cupcakes and decorate them all day long if I could! Someday, cupcake will be my hobby when I am a stay-at-home mom!

Anyways, I noticed during the show when the contestants had to make a "cocktail-inspired cupcake" that Jen Kwapinski said she didn't drink for "religious reasons." A light bulb turned on in my head. "She HAS to be LDS," I told myself. "I so want to write about this!"

The next day at work, I completely forgot to bring up what I witnessed on the "Next Great Baker" during our usual morning story-ideas meeting. My boss actually was the one who brought it up, because he watches the show too! But I got all excited and said I would figure out a way to interview Jen over the phone about her experience on the show.

After a week of trying to stay in touch with one of the few "Next Great Baker" publicists, I decided to get smart and just call Jen's Cakes, the bakery Jen owns. I was easily able to get an interview with Jen for the next day! Why didn't I do that any sooner?

I loved being able to interview Jen and hear about her experience and how a reality show like the "Next Great Baker" works. We were on the phone for almost an hour just laughing and having a good time throughout the interview!

The "Next Great Baker" finale was tonight, and Jen ended up not winning. I was so bummed! But I had a feeling she wasn't going to win because during our interview, she said once the finale airs, "Mostly everyone will probably forget about me within a couple weeks." I figured if you're the next great baker, you would be pretty well-known and talked about for at LEAST a few months, if not more! The winner ended up being Ashley, which although I don't like her attitude at all, she really did fight to win. She won almost every Baker's Challenge and is so good at what she does. But Ashley won $100,000 and gets to work in Carlo's Bakery for who knows how long. Ashley doesn't currently own a bakery like Jen, so I'm sure Ashley will be a good fit there. Plus Jen has a family to take care of back in San Jose, so it's not like she needed the money. She's doing pretty well!

My article I wrote about my interview with Jen was put online today, and it's on the home page of Deseret News, rotating with the other top stories! It's pretty neat accomplishing something like that.  You can read the article here!

FYI: the current title of the article is "'Next Great Baker' finalist's Mormon faith on display." I did NOT put that as the title, but I guess the editor felt their title was better than my "'Next Great Baker' finalist stays true to Mormon standards throughout show." I usually like the editor's changes, but I liked my title way more! Oh well, I guess it will do.

A couple more months at Deseret News, then hopefully it's off to bigger and better things! (What's bigger than working at Deseret News? Probably not much, but I'm hopeful.)