GRETNA, Neb. (KMTV) - Welcome to Audrey's Bakery…. except it's not really her bakery. It's her parents kitchen.
Audrey Wilcoxson is 14 years old and an eighth grader at Gretna Middle School. And she loves to bake.
"When I was little, I used to cook with my grandma and it just kinda took off from there,” Audrey said. "I think we made cookies a lot and then I liked doing the dishes with her.”
The hobby she picked up when she was four years old has led her to start a small business.
While most kids come home to do homework, she bakes. Cookies, cupcakes and lately beautiful decorative cakes.
She's done cakes with different themes for birthdays, retirements and holidays.
"I follow a lot of people on Instagram and they make a lot of videos. I watch those a lot. That's where I get a lot of my ideas from,” Audrey said.
"You can just look at it and she just tries and does it,” said Audrey’s mom Angie. “A lot of techniques that she's learning and things that I've never even seen and I'm like, ‘Go ahead!"
"I still don't understand how she comes and can make a cake,” said Audrey’s dad Erik. “Like the Fourth of July cake, you cut the inside and it has the American flag inside it. It just blows me away to see how well she's done and how much she's grown in the short period of time without any help but social media and The Food Network."
Those cakes are now helping put money in her pocket.
"I'll make it at night after school and then I'll post it on my Instagram and Snapchat and then In the morning I'll come to school and people buy it,” Audrey said. "If I make a cake, I bring a slice of it every day to my lunch table and they don't have to pay anything. But like cupcakes, I sell for a dollar."
She's starting small for now, sticking mostly to her family and friends at her school. But for a young teen, she's already experiencing what many of us hope to achieve. That’s turning a passion into a business.
"She's figured out what it costs her, she figured out the time behind it,” Erik said. “For awhile there, she would sell the cake, she'd pay us for the ingredients, and she'd keep the profits. Just like any businesswoman would. To see that growth is tremendous for us. To see her not only grow with her decorations and cakes but to see her as a businesswoman as well."
