Want to know who the creative geniuses behind Raspberry Icing are? Of course you do! Lucky for you, we anticipated this and decided to share a few tidbits. So, for your reading pleasure...
Meet Erika, a 20-something who is currently aging backwards and will forever be somewhere between 21 and 25 years old. She’s a nature-loving (but not tree-hugging), dog owning, celebrity gossip reading sports fanatic who can be fairly neurotic at times and has a healthy collection of phobias. She was privileged enough to attend Mr. Jefferson’s famed University (WAHOOWA!!), which is where she honed her love for baking. She loved to whip up delicious concoctions with her roommate and quickly discovered the stress-relieving quality it had. (Side note: she also learned that keeping homemade baked goods on hand was a great way to bribe the apartment maintenance men.) Erika currently works with a local county government as a case manager for adults with serious mental illness – basically, she’s HBIC for crazy people.
Meet Brian, a much-less-sensitive 20-something who continues to age in the normal, forward progressing fashion. He, too, is a gossip loving sports fanatic and spends much of his free time reading… and reading… and reading about what is going on with his favorite celebrities and teams. He attended Virginia Tech, where he majored in drinking (better known as management) and enjoyed many a Hop Skip and Go Naked and Jumbo Texas Margarita during his years in Blacksburg. Brian gets to flex his creative kitchen muscles each Wednesday at a friendly gathering inspirationally named “Wednesday Night Dinner.”
Erika and Brian met at their high school job - a lovely car dealership gig that was a way better deal for Erika than it was for Brian. To try to sweeten his much shorter end of the stick, Brian started spending time loitering around Erika's desk. This led to many hilarious conversations, moments (ask them about "big flaming orgasm red!" one day), and a budding friendship based on...well.... they can't really remember what exactly it was based on. Coincidently, this is also where they met Sallee, owner of Fran's Cake and Candy, an awesome shop where they get a lot of their needed baking accessories. You should check them out and say hi! to Sallee. She's awesome. But I digress....
Brian started visiting Erika at UVA (because he recognized how awesome it was there, although he'll never admit it), and her roommate quickly discovered his skills in the kitchen. (Translation, her roommate would wake up early, make a lot of noise and "accidently" wake Brian up. She would then look at him and say "oh! sorry to wake you up! ...... well... since you're up and all.... want to make us some pancakes?") And so their relationship went for years and years. Erika eventually lost said roommate, however that didn't stop the pancakes. Rather than relying on someone else, Erika would wake up and start poking Brian until he awoke, and she would politely ask for homemade breakfast goods. Yes, Erika can be a little demanding like that.
The pair eventually discovered that they had a shared love of scantily clad, muscular men and creating delicious concoctions in the kitchen. Despite their shared loves, however, they definitely have different tastes in who they consider hott, and different styles in the kitchen. Erika is a bit anal retentive (editor's note: "a bit" = "beyond incredibly") and feels the need to painstakingly follow every tiny detail of a recipe. Brian is more the type where he's happy as long as most of the required ingredients end up being mixed together. Basically, she's a little bit country, he's a little bit free wheeling gay. In spite of these huge differences, they somehow make it work together. Their baking process is messy, comical, ridiculous, and sometimes even disastrous, but you can't argue with the end result. While not always pretty, it always tastes damn good. They’re generally pretty modest people, but when it comes to baking, they’re not going to lie or downplay things - they kick ass.