September 2022 Cake! Magazine Sept 2022 | Page 45

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF AND THE STORY BEHIND HOW COOKIE TRADE SHOW CAME TO BE ?
My name is Georgia , I am owner of Sweet Dough By Georgia and now founder and director of Cookie Trade Show Australia . I have always had a passion for cooking and baking . My nana was a cake decorator and I used to watch her for hours making fondant flowers and 3-4 tier wedding cakes . She ALWAYS let me test out her baking tools and equipment and I know that that ' s where my passion started for this industry . From the age of 14 I was always looking at shops to rent or food trucks to buy because it was constantly in my head ( It drove my mum insane ). I never really enjoyed school ( Apart from cooking class which I took as an extra subject in high school and learning about business in business class ). I always knew this was the industry for me , I just didn ' t have a niche . Becoming vegan almost 6 years ago due to a health issue , I really started to explore recipes and see a different side to baking , I also saw the demand for vegan bakes starting to become more and more needed . It was my son ' s birthday , and I couldn ' t find any local vegan cookies for his party , so I decided to make my own and that ' s where it all started . I randomly one day came across a Cookie Event in America and thought how amazing it looked and how we are missing that in Australia , it all seemed to be cake shows ect .
I have a little bit of a " go get it if you want it " attitude and that ' s totally what happened with this Bake Show ! I was thinking about it for months , talking about it to my husband , he thought I was nuts . I emailed someone to view a venue and they never got back to me for a couple months so it went to the back of my mind , and then they randomly called me one day and offered me a certain date , without any hesitation I booked the venue with money that I had started saving for a bake studio and just rolled with it .
I am hoping this show just brings together the whole community . If you have colleagues in this industry , then I think that ' s incredible , but the majority of us don ' t because we have started businesses on our own from our own homes . From announcing this event the community has just been so supportive , from the bakers , to the stamp creators , bake supply store and more . I was so overwhelmed with the love and compassion people were giving me . It really did make me feel like I have hopefully created something amazing to bring us all together doing what we all love . I hope it brings the experts and experienced bakers , the people who have been in business for a while , the people who have just started out , the hobby bakers , the children who love baking like I did as a child and even the people who have maybe burnt out in the industry and they are wanted to find their flare again . I just think if you ' re into baking and cookies we are into you , and I just want to create that space for people to come and be around like minded people . It ' s so important for business growth .