Welcome to Tamera’s Tidbits! I am a wife, a mother of three and a traveler. I am also a self taught baker. I read cookbooks, magazines, have watched way too much Food Network and Youtube videos and enjoy spending time browsing through countless recipes online. I also like going out and taking more pictures than I will ever need. Photography is another fun hobby. When I was a  little girl I had always liked making homemade cookies. However, I didn’t go too far outside of that small comfort zone. The real baking all started because several years ago I wanted to make my 6 year old a beautiful princess cake. I tried out a recipe for homemade fondant. I had never used it before and wasn’t sure what to expect. How hard could it be? My first cake looked pretty good (for a first cake) but the cake itself wasn’t wonderful. It was too dry and the frosting was too sweet. My 6 year old didn’t seem to notice though and thought it was great! The fondant tore a little and having no experience with what to do next, I made some drop flowers along the cracks to cover the rips. I was hooked.

This began years of reading and researching recipes to figure out how a cake can not only look beautiful but taste amazing too! I got caught up in the cupcake craze and came up with lots of great recipes. Before I knew it I was baking all the time. I was baking so much that I burned out the motor on my stand mixer. Cupcakes, cookies, pies, quiche, turnovers, breads, frostings, custards and whatever else looked like fun to try. I suppose baking has always been somewhat in my genes. My grandmother was a great baker. There were always homemade goodies at her house. At Christmas she didn’t just have one or two pies. She would make sure to have everyone’s favorites! There would be an apple pie, pecan pie, cherry pie, pumpkin pie and then also cookies and homemade divinity, peanut brittle and banana pudding. She was also a great cook but I can’t ever remember her looking at a recipe. She had a handwritten recipe book but she did everything by memory, touch and feel and it was amazing!

Life has taken many twists and turns that have sometimes been surprising and unexpected since that first cake. While I spend a lot of time baking I also now travel quite a bit. In 2014 my husband took a job with the State Department. We picked up our kids and started an adventure with great challenges and opportunities to see the world in a new way.  We spent 2 years in El Salvador, where we added a chocolate lab named Athena to our family. We spent another two years in Ireland, which I absolutely loved! We’ve also spent some time living in Arlington, VA. Baking when I am overseas is a way to not only fill my time but bring that piece of home and familiar tastes and smells with us to a new and unfamiliar place. It is also fun to share treats with others. I’m now living in Taipei and it’s a whole different adventure baking here!

I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures in baking, traveling and just living life!