Nice to meet you!
I'm Kelly Campbell and I'm a lifelong baker, recipe designer, self-admitted chocoholic, dessert fanatic, bread enthusiast, fruit fan, coffee addict, sugar lover, and Farmer's Market regular. Outside of the food realm, I'm a wife, mom to two boys, hockey and tennis player, marketing expert, world traveler, and never-ending storyteller.
Ever since I was little, I have had a connection with food. It's there for every holiday, celebration, success, failure, love, and loss. You name it, tasty meals and yummy desserts have had a way of being placed in the center of my life. Also, I have a notorious sweet tooth, which I know was passed down to me by both of my grandmothers. Grandma Penny made the best Christmas cookies - the kind that melt in your mouth and make you eat twice as many as you should. She also mastered Lemon Meringue Pie, which my grandfather used to request every birthday. Grandma Thelma, on the other hand, was famous for her Fresh Cherry Pie. She made it using freshly picked cherries from the cherry tree in her backyard, as my father always recounts. I never had the chance to eat a slice, but the sheer thought of it makes my mouth water.
I started baking when I was just a little girl by helping my Grandma Penny in the kitchen. Every visit, it seemed we baked something from scratch - chocolate chip cookies, cupcakes, fudge, Christmas cookies, pie, cinnamon rolls, and more. It seemed that I always left her house with a new baking tip each time. As I grew, so did my kitchen skills. I went from being the "assistant" to the lead baker in the family. In high school, I partnered up with a friend one summer and we ended up starting our own cookie company called "Williamson & Meyer". Even though we didn't have cars, we delivered some of the most amazing homemade cookies to our friends and family, ultimately turning a profit. Not bad for a summer start-up! And since then, baking has turned from a lifelong passion into a super fun side gig for me on top of my normal marketing day job (check out @sunnysideupmktg for that side of me!).
How did COCOHAUS come about? Well, the idea first came to mind while I was on my honeymoon in Austria with my husband in Fall 2013. We spent almost every afternoon on our trip having a dessert break at the nearest cafe that we could find, and there was just something about the sweetness of the pastries we tried, the calming cafe atmosphere, and the pride of the waiters serving us that created some of our most precious memories from that trip. I remember each dessert vividly as if it were yesterday - the creamy espresso layer cake, dark chocolate Mozart torte, and the strawberry jelly roll cake, among others. But what I remember most besides the food is the happiness and love that my husband and I felt during those moments - it all plays back in my mind when I'm reminiscing about our trip. When we arrived home, all I wanted to do was recreate the experiences and the feelings that we had in those cafes overseas.
With that, COCOHAUS was created. It represents a melting of two things I hold near and dear to my heart - a sweet life and a loving home. COCOHAUS is more than just a food blog - it's about sharing authentic stories that are sparked because of food. It's about creating sweet memories. It's about living a wonderful life and enjoying the small things. We only get one life to live - better make it sweet!
I hope you enjoy the recipes and stories that are shared on COCOHAUS. Bon appetit and happy cooking!