Hello! For those of you who don’t know me (yet), my name is Anna Otto and I am the owner of Beauty From Life Baking! For me, the kitchen is the place where so much life happens. I have spent much of my life in the kitchen - it was the place where family prepared and shared meals together but also where we shared life moments. It was in my mom’s kitchen that I got to see and experience so many of life’s beautiful moments: watching my parents dance in the kitchen, food fights with my brothers (mom’s idea believe it or not), crafts with friends at the kitchen table, crying on the kitchen floor, blowing out birthday candles, deep talks with my mom over a cup of tea, laughing at my Dad throwing treats to the dog… the list goes on-and-on.

Since I did so much life in the kitchen, it only makes sense that it would continue there with my own little baking business. I didn’t expect to start my own baking business, but God takes us unexpected places - and I believe that He places passions in our hearts for a reason. I started helping in the kitchen as soon as I could stand on a chair by myself. The first time I remember baking something completely on my own it was a batch of chocolate chip cookies… I made a batch everyday that week because I saw how much my family felt loved by my baking - that’s when I discovered that baking is a way of loving people.

What a journey my baking has taken me on since that first batch of chocolate chip cookies! While I started off baking for my friends and family, since then I have had the privilege of functioning as the head of cakes for a much-loved local bakery, baking and decorating cakes for all occasions. It was while working there that I discovered that I especially love creating wedding cakes! Collaborating with a bride to create the cake of her dreams - as delicious to the taste as it is a delight to behold - brings me great joy.

Today I have my own baking business so that I can create beautiful cakes to celebrate life’s special moments. I chose the name for my business after recognizing that there can be beauty in moments of both joy and hardship and seeing the way that people feel loved by my baking for them. When I bake for people I am baking for the beauty that can be found in every life moment, whether joyous or heartbreaking. And then there are some times you just need a really good piece of cake.

I look forward to baking for the beauty in your life moments!

~ Anna