Old North News

Start with a day of school, stir in an hour or two of baking, and top it off with a dash of icing. That’s a recipe that Nicole Neal, who just graduated from high school, has followed for the past seven years to earn money and get introduced to the world of running a bakery.

While she has juggled school and her hobby, she called her business venture Handmade Nicole.

"I think it's important to find something that's gonna express how you are,” she said in a WTVD report, “and I think finding baking really helped me. Even though it's a stressor, it's a good stress in a sense, because at the end of the day. I'm doing something I really like and I'm doing it well. And other people's validation is fine, but knowing I did this -- I made that amazing cake - It helps at the end of the day.” 

Neal gives credit to a cousin for introducing her to baking. After her cousin died, Neal inherited the mixer they used together. She has since made good use of it, even though she said she just stumbled into it becoming a business.

"Honestly, I didn't even have a plan. I just started selling it,” she said in the report. “And then once I got older and I realized with all the business classes I took, 'OK, you need a market. You need to have prices that you're actually going to make money.'"

When she goes to college at North Carolina A&T this fall, she said she’ll prepare for a career in journalism or filmmaking, but she holds the idea of running a bake shop in the back of her mind.

“At the end of the day, I'm going to have my bakery one day,” she said. “I’m going to have my own doors to open up and for everyone to come."