Grandmother’s lessons leads entrepreneur into business
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A dream wedding cake created by Shawn Hill owner of For Goodness Bakes. (Courtesy photo)
Oh, For Goodness Bakes
By Teresa Bigham/The Hesperian-Beacon—
LOCKNEY – Shawn Hill credits his grandmother for his love and passion to bake.
Elsie Clark worked in the school cafeteria for more than 30 years and taught Hill about baking.
“That was when the school lunch ladies made everything by hand,” Hill said. “It’s because of her that I am able to be the baker that I am. She taught me so much. I love that lady. She means the world to me.”
Through his business, For Goodness Bakes, Hill makes cakes, cookies, pies, dinner rolls as well as caters events and during the week he makes dinner plates, if he can fit it into his busy baking schedule. Hill started his home-based business in 2013.
“On the days I can do dinner plates, I will post what I’m fixing on Facebook’s Progreso site. It will be on Monday or Wednesday nights because I do not want to interfere with the pizza buffets or the fish fries that the senior citizens have,” he said.
Cookies designed and baked by Shawn Hill for a birthday girl to share with her Noah’s Ark classmates. (Courtesy photo)
About 65 percent of Hill’s customers are from the surrounding towns. He has created cakes for customers in Midland, Amarillo and Plainview.
“Of course, I can’t leave Floydada out,” he said, “I must mention Carolyn Hardy, because she is my special customer. She orders cakes from me every chance she gets. I once made 400 cupcakes that went to Lamesa for their prom.”
Currently Hill is booked through November with large baking orders, but he said he might be able to fit in some small orders.
Hill said he absolutely loves what he does, and that it is a God giving talent since other than his grandmother, he has had no training.
He said he can spend hours baking and decorating a single cake. “In fact, the Harry Potter cake I recently did, I worked about 20 hours on that cake. I may watch several baking technique videos and use a little bit from each one to get the finished product that I want.”
Born and raised in Lockney, Hill is the son of Bill and Elentia Hill and grandson of Elsie Clark, and his sisters are Shedia Benton and Kasidy Rosales. He is a 1993 graduate of Lockney High School where he was a member of Lockney Chapter 4-H and competed several times in the food and nutrition events
A Harry Potter birthday masterpiece birthday cake Shawn Hill spent more than 20 hours creating. (Courtesy photo)
During his senior year, Hill won the state Share the Fun competition. He also placed in the top three of the food and nutrition project with his peanut butter and jelly muffins.
Hill earned an associate’s degree in speech communications from South Plains College and his bachelor’s degree from Texas Tech University in public relations.
While he was attending TTU, Hill was employed by Convergys Corporation and had worked his way up to management.
“I was making good money; I mean really good money, so I decided to change career paths. Several years later I was offered a job in the Dallas area, so I moved. Unfortunately, in 2012 our economy was not the best and I was laid off. Jobs were hard to find, and I was unemployed for about eight months. That is when I decided I needed to a change in my life, so I moved back to Lockney,” Hill said.
When he finds time to relax, he said he enjoys watching reality TV and spending time with his family. He also said he likes sports of all kinds but mainly watching NFL and the NBA games.
“I like living here in Lockney because of the slow pace and the people. The people are simply amazing.” Hill said.
For more information, to book an event, or just to get ideas, check out Hill’s Facebook page, For Goodness Bakes.
