Cakes & New Creations

"Hey Mama! You gonna make something new?!?!"

This is the battle cry I hear from my backyard. It usually comes from one of my two minis, either Aidan (9) or Riley (7). I am fairly certain that all of Peeples Valley Rd. can hear their battle cry as well. I am just not sure that they are aware that "making something new" means I will be covered in flour, sugar, egg, and quite possibly my own tears by the time the baking/creative process is done.

My minis don't realize that two dozen (or four dozen by the time I had fake smiled my way through agreeing to baking a whole lot) of those Practically Perfect Brownies actually were hard work! Little did they know that their "Family Friendly" Irish Cream Cake (without walnuts as Aidan likes it), takes about thirty minutes longer to cook than the "Traditional" version that most of mommy and the man's friends are QUITE fond of! It could go without saying that being a baker or sweet maker is really hard work!

But quite honestly, it is the little things like that, that make Coley's Cakes & Confections different. Here is a little background...

Hi! My name is Nicole! I grew up in a small town about 45 miles northwest of Atlanta, GA. I went to school with all the same kids from kindergarten through graduation ( at least primarily from kindergarten through graduation! And many of us are still connected on Facebook, Twitter, and various other forms of social media...) We all graduated together and ultimately separated together...

Then I got gutsy! While everyone was attending UGA or Georgia Tech, I attended Atlanta Christian College in East Point (a.k.a. Point University.) Really...A.K.A. the GHETTO... I still get looks like, "East Point?!?!? Girlllll, you realize you are neon white, right?" . Yep...I chose a college not many people had heard of and a degree no one really under stood (Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a minor in Human Services and a sub-minor in Addictions Counseling.) BUT GOD HAD A PLAN!! As, He always does...

Flash forward to December 2015, I am coming home on Highway 20 and my blood sugar bottoms out (the downside to being hypoglycemic), and I veer into oncoming traffic and hit another car head on in the opposite lane. While I will forever be remarkably sad that someone was injured, I still praise God that they are alive! I also praise God that they didn't spend almost a month in the hospital like I did. That was a wake up call for Your Coley! The wake up call went like this:

"HEY COLEY!" "Yessss, voice that I have no IDEA where you are coming from...what did I do wrong? OH DEAR SWEET CHEESE!! I DON'T KNOW WHERE I AM!! OHHHHHH MY GOSH....I do a lot of stuff wrong like not use enough hand sanitizer, write my notes in alphabetical order, eat oatmeal, drink more coffee, enjoy wine, meet more people...eree..."

"SHHHSUUHSHHHHH....you talk too much. Even in your mind. Do you know that? You don't shut your face even in your mind! Even when there is a mystical voice trying to direct you to wake up...now...WAKE UP..." says the voice from the great beyond (that I now imagine is Morgan Freeman. Admit it...you said all that just now in Morgan Freeman's voice.)

When I woke, it was an epiphany! And it was scarier than prison and showering naked (which I have done both). But within a short moment, after the man showed me the disastrous wreck I had created on Highway 20 in Canton, I realized I had spent so much time concentrating on the WORRIES of THIS LIFE that I stopped concentrating on the JOYS!

WOOOHOOOOOOOO....JOY!

I could rejoice that I was alive. I was in remarkable pain and it SUCKED! I was on not ONE, but TWO wound vacs, but praise God I ALIVE, and I could FEEL that pain!

For a moment there, the questions were, "Will Nicole walk?" "Is Nicole going to be able to eat?" "Is Nicole going to be able to swallow?"

"Is Nicole going to be able to walk?" With difficulty and occasionally with a cane, YES! But I can still walk! (I will NEVER walk as SMOOTHLY as Charlie Chaplin when it comes to my cane...FYI...)

"Is Nicole going to be able to eat?" Yes! I have to be a bit better guarded in what I choose in regards to refined sugars and saturated fats, but there isn't anything, within moderation, that I can't eat.

"Is Nicole going to be able to swallow?" This may seem petty, but is actually quite HUGE after an accident like I had. For the first eight days, I was intuabed and comatose. I knew nothing of the world around me. Had I not come around when God said, "Hey Nicole! They need a little Coley action in your area of Georgia..." I wouldn't have had to worry about this because a feeding tube would have be been my design for the future!

But Jesus told me, ""Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" (Matthew 6:25-26 ESV). Don't get me wrong. I am not at all minimizing the horrific problem we have here in America with hunger and with the Lord's calling to me through these verses. But this is my calling...

Before my momma died, I could always remember her telling me, "A generous man will himself be blessed for he shares his food with the poor." (Proverbs 22:9) While momma may have not had money to spare for people, she always found them food and something to drink. In the South, it is hot! I will swelter and want something to drink before food, 9 times out of 10. My momma would then sit down with them like they were her long lost friends and talked to them. She could care less if they had no money, if they were hungry or homeless, if they hadn't bathed in week, my momma knew how to minister to a person's heart, NO MATTER where they where...and I realized (laying in the trauma unit in Kennestone Hospital) that I could do that just as she did. I had that ability because I was a FOODIE (a deep lover of foods of ALL KINDS)!!!

I wanted people to be FED! HEART , BODY, and SOUL! I don't care where you are from, where you are going, what your gender is, what your political belief is, if you like Cats or Dogs, if you are a hunter or you prefer to be a trap and release...in this world we have ALL been given a calling by God, placed here for HIS purpose within His kingdom, and as Your Coley and a baker...I have been given some seeds.

I can hear Morgan Freeman asking me now, "What do you plan to do with these seeds, Coley?" Well friends, and Morgan Freeman, I plan to plant these seeds, love the people of God as I was commanded to do, and feed his people.

Oh, Coley! This will require prayer, faith, friends, and work! But I have ALL of that! (Or so my Morgan Freeman narrator is telling me...)

So with this story (a TRUE ONE AT THAT), I welcome you ALL to Coley's Cakes & Confections! We are PEOPLE who LOVE PEOPLE here! I adore you all as you come...you were created with a purpose! Hopefully, you will come across a cake, a bread, a brownie (and later) cookies, that you would like to order from our confectionery website! We do also create special orders that are custom made just for you! (Sugar Free, Marshmallow Fondant Birthday Cakes...you name it and we are GOING TO DO IT FOR YOU!!!)

We purchase all our produce from local farmers and purveyors of goods so that all small businesses can continue to grow and prosper! Each month we will highlight a local small business or mission that, like Coley's Cakes & Confections, is looking to grow and give back to their community and world at large!

So....from Your Coley to you ALL...Thank you! Go raibh míle maith agat! Grazie! Vielen Dank! धन्यवाद! We are so very thankful that you have considered us for your cakes, breads, sweets, and confectionery needs!

Yours,

Coley <3