The Mixing Bowl
Tips and strategies for running, growing, and surviving your dessert brand.
The Thank-You Email That Only Thanked Part of the Order
Bakery Buddy's review-request email describes what a customer ordered by reading one database column. On any order with more than one line item, that column was quietly describing a fraction of it, and every email built from it still read as a complete, well-written sentence.
The Last Screen Before a Customer Paid Was Showing the Wrong Day
A confirmation screen on the last page before a customer pays was asking them to confirm the wrong pickup day, two days off, from two separate bugs stacked on each other. Neither one showed up in a build, because the bug only exists in a customer's timezone, not the server's.
Four Screens Showed Four Different Numbers For the Same Thing
Bakery Buddy shows a small green number when something needs a baker's attention. Orders said 20. Automations said 21. Reports said 17. The toolbar said 14. Nobody could say which one was right, because none of them were reading the same list.
When "Skip" Quietly Means "Never Again"
A birthday email automation looked like it had nothing to send. It actually had eight real orders buried under four stacked bugs, the worst of which turned a normal "not now" into a permanent lockout.
The Nightly Sync That Kept Un-Paying My Customers
A nightly import from FreshBooks was quietly overwriting orders that customers had already paid through Bakery Buddy itself. Here's what happens when two systems both think they own the same truth.
Nobody at a Counter Talks Like a Database
I added voice ordering to Bakery Buddy this week. The speech recognition was the easy part. The hard part was that a customer says "six inch round" and the menu says Round 6", and those two strings share almost nothing.
Go Outside and Stop Playing Video Games
The advice I ignored as a kid finally makes sense. With AI agents doing the heavy lifting, I ship software from a mountain bike trail now.
How to Write a Blog Post with AI (Copy My Exact Steps)
The exact steps and copy-paste prompts I used to make a blog post with AI. No coding. If you can copy and paste, you can do this.
What Building a Bakery App with AI Taught Me About AI for Bakers
I built Bakery Buddy's platform with AI coding tools in about a week. Here's what I actually shipped — and what it means for AI in a small bakery.