A couple of weeks ago, my stepdaughter was excited to show me an article in the local quarterly magazine, Homefront in Tecumseh. One of her classmates started her own business and it was featured.
Zoe Powers is 14 years old, and not only works at a catering business, but runs her own cakes and confection business with a memorable name.
"I kept trying to figure out what to call it, so I kept asking [my mom,]" Powers says. "She decided to tell met to call it ‘Bite Me,’ just joking with me - and I decided it was a great idea!”
Zoe’s done a couple of wedding cakes, birthday cakes. Her biggest was an eight-layer “Alice in Wonderland” cake.
When we visited, she decided she’d show us how she makes a pumpkin pie.
So, how do you become a baker at 14?
Zoe says you start spending time in the kitchen with mom when you’re 7.
“I just started helping her, and then eventually I told her to get out of the kitchen,” she laughs.
“Definitely all hers," Zoe's mom, Amy Powers, confirms. "She does run the kitchen.”
Amy says her daughter has practically lived baking.
“And it went from trying it on her own, to doing it, to making her own recipes. It was just her own passion that drove her,” Amy says.
The 14-year-old entrepreneur says the next step is to start taking classes at Washtenaw Technical Middle College.
“You start out by just doing your high school work. But then, a couple of college classes added. And they’re the only community college that offers a culinary arts degree –what is it, an associates degree? So that’s something I’d really like to do along with doing business and culinary and confections,” she says.
In the meantime, Zoe Powers says she’s baking for Bite Me, learning how to airbrush cakes, and looking for inspiration.
