When asked the question how long have I been baking, the truth is for as long I could recite the alphabet. My love for baking began with my grandma and mother, who always baked homemade goodies from scratch. I started out thinking a cupcake company which catered to special events would be a great idea. Little did I know, the requests for daily cupcakes would become a regular occurrence, which inspired me to open a cupcake bakery. I love anything cute and my SWEET love for cute little cakes and cupcakes is the passion that drives me. Besides… cute doesn’t need a reason, so celebrate your senses!

My cupcake obsession began when I was a little girl and I dreamed of beautiful cakes and cupcakes…but my bigger dream was birthday parties.  I have always looked for reasons to celebrate…to throw a party.  When I was in college I would go home for weekends just to bake and then bring goodies back to have parties in my dorm room.  When I “grew up” the parties evolved to quite a larger scale, throwing wedding and baby showers for friends, large Christmas parties, and many birthday parties.  When we adopted our first daughter I lived and dreamed planning her birthday parties…often thinking of themes for two years ahead.  Later when we met our soon-to-be-adopted children from Guatemala, I was heartbroken to learn they had never had a birthday party.  I could not wait to get them home to throw them great parties.  When my kids entered school I realized that there were many children who could not bring treats to school on their birthday so I decided cupcakes were something I could do.  So my cupcake passion was reborn…dreaming once again of cupcakes.  I live in Kirkland, Washington with my husband Doug and four adopted children, Gabe, Tycie, Jazzmyn and Mia. My husband works for an organization called Children of the Nations, that is where I met co-founder Debbie Clark. I found out that she throws birthday parties for kids in Africa once a year, I got excited and thought if I started selling my cupcakes I could start a fund from some of my proceeds to help fund those birthday parties in Africa.  With a strong passion for baking, birthday parties and kids it seemed a natural fit for me to start a cupcake business.

Making the World Sweeter…PinkaBella Cupcakes™ gives back…please visit www.cotni.org