“You have to know your purpose, you have to know why you’re here.”
Those are the words of advice that Kai, Aimee Anderson’s friend and fellow contestant on the TV show The Next Great Baker, had to offer shortly before the show was broadcast, making Aimee a local celebrity and a nationally known baker. Kai recognized that the show was going to make Aimee’s “flame go up high,” along with her friend and baking partner on the show, Jose Barajas. The advice was intended to prepare Aimee for a rush of fanfare and get her to focus on what she cared most deeply about so that she could use her newfound celebrity status for a higher purpose.
Aimee Anderson and Jose Barajas, friends and co-contestants on the Next Great Baker.
What would that purpose be?
After some soul searching, Aimee decided that she’d use her “flame” to raise money for her father’s mission organization, Going Global, Inc. Going Global is committed to feeding, clothing, and sheltering orphans and widows, and training pastors and leaders throughout the world, including Nepal, Myanmar, and the Andaman Islands. To raise money for the charity, Aimee would sell her now-famous toffee, donating 100% of the profits to the mission organization. Thus, Aimee’s Toffee was born, with the slogan “Sweet For You, Sweeter For Orphans.”
Her journey to and from that point is a story that is both informational and inspirational…
From Wisconsin to California
Aimee was born and raised in Wisconsin, as her delightful accent will attest. Her grandmother was an avid baker. “We all consumed a massive amount of sugar,” she says laughing. Like many Americans, she was also raised on a diet consisting primarily of processed foods such as TV dinners and hotdogs.
Aimee’s love for sweets and sugar lead her to start doing her own baking throughout her teenage years. When she was 18, she decided she’d had enough of Wisconsin’s cold temperatures and snow.
She headed to San Diego where she had family, including her Aunt Janis (who would later cofound Daily Harvest Express). Aimee was supposed to stay with Janis for a weekend, but the two got along so well that a weekend ended up turning into three years.
It was through Janis that Aimee first experienced “real food.” “I’d never even had fresh broccoli until I moved in with Janis – and she’s just such a phenomenal cook that she made me realize healthy food could also taste good,” says Aimee.
At 22, Aimee married the love of her life, Wes, and kept on developing her baking skills. She was drawn to cake decorating since she wanted to make beautiful foods, not just delicious foods. She took cake decorating classes, fell in love with the process, and soon began getting paid for her beautiful and delicious creations.
Aunt Colleen’s Top Secret Toffee Recipe
Every Christmas, Wes and Aimee’s Aunt Colleen would gift a tin of her homemade toffee to family members. It wasn’t just any toffee though: it was absolute perfection. Just the right amount of crunch. Just the right sweetness and salt. Just the right ratio of chocolate, toffee, and nuts. Everyone in the family loved it and nobody could get enough of “Aunt Colleen’s toffee.”
Aimee and other family members begged Aunt Colleen for her secret toffee recipe–a request that grew increasingly desperate when Aunt Colleen was unable to make toffee anymore due to an injury. Her response? “No, my toffee recipe is a secret.”
For three years, Aimee tried every type of friendly bribe and psychological technique she could think of to coax the secret toffee recipe out of Aunt Colleen. One day, Aunt Colleen finally cracked and agreed to give Aimee her secret toffee recipe with one condition attached: “don’t share it with anyone.” Aimee did some tweaking to Aunt Colleen’s toffee recipe to make it her own (which she does to most recipes, she confessed).
Ever since, Aimee has set a goal to generate at least $1,000 in profits every Christmas through sales of Aimee’s Toffee. Those profits then go to buy blankets and other necessities for orphans and widows via Going Global Inc. Making the perfect toffee is a laborious, time-intensive process. “While I’m making toffee, I think about the kids I got to meet in years past and the kids I’m going to see and help in the future,” Aimee says.
Some of the children that Aimee has met and helped through Going Global Inc.
“I’m A Sugar Addict” – A Personal and Ethical Dilemma
Late last year, Aimee realized she had a serious problem. She felt terrible, wasn’t clear-headed, and weighed far more than she wanted to. After doing a lot of reading and soul searching, she came to a startling realization: “I’m a sugar addict,” she told herself and her family, “and I’ve got to quit.”
In January of 2017, Aimee adopted a sugar and gluten-free diet. “Changing my diet made a huge impact on me physically and emotionally. I lost 37 pounds, I feel great, and my skin is glowing. I don’t have that mental ‘sugar fog’ anymore. I also don’t have those overwhelming sugar cravings anymore.”
Going sugar and gluten-free is hard enough for an ordinary person, but for a professional cake and toffee maker, the challenges would seem almost insurmountable. However, Aimee is undaunted.
In her mind, her sugar addiction is every bit as powerful, if not more so, than narcotic and alcohol addictions–a notion that many medical experts who have studied sugar addiction agree with. She no longer counts the number of days she’s gone sugar-free since she declared herself to be SFFL – Sugar Free For Life. Aimee participates in support groups, and knows that one slip can send her spiraling back out of control, as has happened for countless others who are similarly addicted to sugar. Her newfound passion for living a sugar-free life has led her to be a “sugar coach,” helping others with sugar addiction to be free and live a healthy life. In fact, in 2018, she’ll be joining forces with Barry Friedman of 30 Days Sugar Free.
Thankfully, Aimee has so much professional experience under her belt that “BLTs” (her acronym for “bites, licks, and tastes”) aren’t necessary to produce an exquisite cake or toffee. However, every day she wonders whether the joy she provides people through her sumptuous cakes and toffee comes with a moral price tag she hadn’t previously considered before battling her own addiction. “I want people to be their best and I want to help them get there. I know there are ways I can make a living without selling sugar. Can I learn how to bake sugar free?”
Aimee baking cakes without a single BLT (bite, like, or taste).
Aimee has immersed herself in healthy cooking and baking classes (in case you were wondering, her favorite sugar alternative is date paste), and she wants to help inspire other people struggling with health issues or sugar addiction to be better versions of themselves. Among her growing list of “converts” are her parents and most of her siblings, who have all experienced near-miraculous improvements in their health by getting sugar and other highly processed foods out of their diets.
The moral dilemma… On one hand, Aimee has world-class toffee based upon a treasured and top-secret family recipe – a product which is beloved by all who taste it and the sale of which helps support orphans in the developing world. On the other hand, Aimee worries her product might fuel someone else’s sugar addiction or contribute to an unhealthy food culture.
Maybe the typical person wouldn’t think twice about such a thing – but Aimee isn’t the typical person. Within a few minutes of talking to her, even a perfect stranger will quickly realize what a caring and nurturing person she is. (Maybe we should avoid calling her “sweet” given the sugar connotations!)
After reflecting on this conundrum, Aimee realizes that the answers may well be found in her own personal journey and research. “You have to understand your body and how it reacts to certain foods – some people can eat sugar and not ever develop the addiction, just like with alcohol or drugs. Ultimately, it has to be a self-diagnosis and then you have to want to get better.”
Ultimately, everyone at Daily Harvest Express–including the farmers and artisanal food makers we work with–want you to be your best. Like Aimee, we also want to leave our community and our world a better place than we found it.
So, if you want: a) a great holiday gift; b) to personally experience the world’s best toffee; or c) to help Aimee provide support for a wonderful global charity; then please head over here and order some Aimee’s toffee right now! However, if you think you might suffer from sugar addiction and need some inspiration for getting better, skip the toffee and connect with Aimee on Instagram at @aimeessugarfreelife or www.30dayssugarfree.com for inspiration and ideas about how to be a better version of yourself! You might also want to consider customizing your own Daily Harvest Express fruit baskets as a sweet yet healthy alternative!
Aimee’s Toffee: mmmm!