For Casey Kelly, baker and owner of Cravings By Casey, it all began with an Easy Bake Oven. She had this oven between the ages of four to seven, Casey explained. “It baked but it usually took a long time.”
Easy Bake Ovens, turquoise in color, were introduced to the market in 1963. This was America’s first working toy oven using light bulbs as heat. At a cost of $15.95, the first issue of 500,000 sold out over the holidays. By its fifth birthday it had become a household name.
A member of a well-known cooking family Casey was making pound cakes in her Easy Bake but says she learned about cooking from her mother, Charlotte Kelly, and godparents Vanessa and Andra Johnson. “I remember when I was in elementary school, I helped my godmother make cupcakes. I guess my love of baking took off from there.”
A Mathews native, Casey graduated from MHS in 2017, earned a bachelor’s in criminal justice from Savannah State University in 2020 and a master’s degree in public administration from Liberty U...