OHHHHH MAN, soooooooo close! Any Regrets? No way. Disappointment? Surprisingly, NO. The Next Great Baker show was an AWESOME experience that boosted my confidence in knowing that my work was even good enough to be considered for a nation competition in just 2 YEARS of starting this cake company.
I just want to extend an enormous and sincere “THANK YOU” to each one of you who took the time out of your days over the last two weeks to vote and often repeatedly vote for yours truly. It just must not have been God’s timing for me to get there yet and I just want say how incredible this NEXT GREAT BAKER chapter was, especially with how fast this all came about after less than two years of hijacking the wife’s hobby.
Think about the significance of all of this. Decorating cakes was never even a thought until my wife took a class in 2009. This whole thing started by accident and with the help of a few key individuals. I was able to make it through thousands of other entries from around the country to then be featured on TLC’s website for a spot on a national forum! Only in America!!! How cool is that? The audition in New York afforded me the opportunity to visit Carlos Bakery, hang out with some of the cast of Cake Boss, visit my brother who lives in Hoboken and spend a day with him at one of the most influential and historically sacred places on the planet, Ground Zero. That place really puts things into perspective as to how privileged each of us are to live in a country that you can have opportunities like the one’s I’ve had and remember back to sitting in a hospital room holding your hours old first grocery goblin while Islamic cowards are crashing planes on behalf of their “peaceful” religion.(Yeah I’m pretty passionate about that as you may have heard)
I owe some VERY special Thank You’s to some very key people who really deserve the credit for me getting the Next Great Baker opportunity.
- Deborah “Fred” Bembenek for her persistence in insisting that TLC recognizes my work.
- Stefan Brandow for his fantastic videography, creativeness and so much of his time. Super super talented video guy even though TLC asked him NOT to edit the video the way he hoped he could.
- My sister Kristin Leonard, Karen Heneks, Michelle Elwell & Katrina Hull- The official groupies of Kenfections that helped reach countless people from all across Facebook and afar. Karen even started a Kenfections cake Event Page for our Next Great Baker effort.
- Donna Bedford for her encouragement and unwavering support.
- Lauren Domm from the Examiner for her GREAT article on our grooms cakes.
- Sandy Culver for her inspiration to ALWAYS GO BIG.
And certainly my wife Janah for putting up with the late nights, weekends and her daring me to take a cake class that I led me to hijacking her new found hobby and letting me go crazy with it.
So, what’s next? EVERYTHING is next. Nothing bad came out of the experience and I’ll keep diggin with wherever these cakes take us. It’s a great hobby that is really relaxing if you like to build things, which I do more than anything.
Thanks again everybody and try to check back soon to see a Star Wars Death Star Cake unlike any you may seen before.
Sincerely,
ken