Betty Crocker Maker: Katie

Instagram: @katieleewilken | Facebook: Katie Lee Wilken | katieleewilken.com

Hi, I’m Katie! I’m a high school math teacher during the school year and work on my family’s ranch during the summer.

Growing up, I lived on our family’s ranch, with only my grandparents as next-door neighbors in very rural South Dakota. My favorite thing to do was run across the stepping-stones between my house and my grandma’s house and bake something with her. My earliest memory of baking was shaping buns with her in the kitchen. One of our favorite things to whip up together was the Betty Crocker Wild Blueberry muffins. Everyone would take a mid-morning break (we call it “coffee time”), and we would savor the warm muffins slathered in butter.

I’ve always enjoyed mixing it up and rarely wanted to make the same thing twice. For ten years I ran a little wedding dessert business, and while it was fun, I got tired of making the same things over and over. The most popular dessert by far was my Vanilla Raspberry Cupcake, which I now make in a sheet pan version. As my baking journey has evolved, I’ve really come to enjoy taking elaborate dessert recipes and simplifying the ingredient list and prep time while still delivering something that tastes and looks similar. I understand that most people are busy and want a fun dessert idea that doesn’t take too much time. I love implementing Betty Crocker mixes into the recipes I share to speed them up and simplify the ingredient list.

My background as a math teacher has helped me not only with the quantity side of recipes, but also with the clarity of the process of writing each recipe. My goal is that anytime someone makes my recipe it turns out perfectly!