An epic spiced pumpkin bread swirled with thick ribbons of Nutella. One bite and you’re in pumpkin heaven.

One year ago this week I quit my job.

I had no idea what I was going to do or what the future held. All I knew was that I hated how things were going, and that I had to get out.

So I thought about what I wanted to do next, and kept coming back to Broma Bakery, the little blog (dare I say blogito?) I had started in college four years earlier. My favorite part of my about-to-quit-it job was doing food photography, and with a creative outlet like my blogito, I made the decision to focus on it full time for a month and see what happened.

I didn’t know what to expect. I figured I’d dip my toes into the professional food blogging world, just to test the waters.

The decision to go full time started quite appropriately with a google search: how do i make money on a food blog. I laugh when I think about it now, but it felt like such a foreign concept to me; I needed to find out in some way. After weeks of research, transferring platforms, developing a new logo and look, setting up WordPress and transferring everything over, Broma Bakery was ready for version 2.0 (or 5.0, because I’ve apologized to my blog here, here, here, and here).

Ever since high school, when someone has asked what I want to be when I grow up, the immediate reaction in my head was “Photographer!” But I truly didn’t believe there was a viable career outlet doing photography in my future. And as I worked the restaurant industry, I realized how much I enjoyed food. So I told people I wanted to own my own restaurant.

But it never felt quite right. I didn’t feel like I was listening to my heart, and I always envisioned a perfect future in which I could somehow integrate both food and photography into my career.

I could not be happier with how things have turned out. I’ve turned my blog into my job, and I love what I do. And I’m beyond grateful for all the opportunities it has provided me. I get to wake up every day and work for myself at the age of 24. I get to bake delicious things and eat them. I get to work alongside some amazing brands with a great integrity for the food they produce. And I get to share everything with a community of hundreds of thousands of people.

I’m shaking my head as I write this, because it has truly been the best path I could’ve hoped for at this stage in my life.

And one thing is certain- I couldn’t have done it without you, readers. Thank you for constantly and consistently commenting, sharing, and supporting this little passion of mine. I wish I could bake a cake for each and every one of you.

If in one year I went from “how do i make money on a food blog” to this, well, I can’t wait to see what the next year holds. THANK YOU!!!

Oh, do you want to hear about this Nutella Swirled Pumpkin Bread? It’s fucking amazing. The most moist pumpkin bread you can imagine. Seriously. And the Nutella gives a wonderful hint of chocolate without overpowering the true star, Mr. Pumpkin. And at only 1/2 cup of oil and 3/4 cup of sugar in the entire loaf, it doesn’t break the scale, either. A win-win.

I just got up to eat the last slice. It was 10/10. No. 11/10.

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