BROOKINGS – Every time Staci Perry takes a perfect cheesecake out of the oven, knowing so many things could go wrong, she is happy.
Though the Brookings resident didn’t start baking until later in life, after her daughter and son were born, her time in the kitchen and writing about her experi- ence go hand-in-hand.
Perry, a communications executive, now has her own baking blog with Facebook and Instagram accounts to go with it.
Random Sweetness Baking came about around the same time she started baking more, bringing her goodies to events or gatherings and having people ask her
for recipes, especially her cheesecakes.
“If I would try something new or create something, I had to put it on my blog so I would remember how to do it again or where to find it,” Perry said. “So now it’s definitely my recipe box.”
For as long as she can remember, she has loved writ- ing and been a writer, so the blog came naturally with her love for baking.
Each day, a few hundred people visit her page. Perry said she gets about 100,000 visitors every year. Most of her social media experiences have come from learning the platforms when her kids started using them.
“A lot of what I do with sharing through social media all stems from what’s new and what my kids are doing,” Perry said. “That’s how I learned Instagram, Snapchat. My kids were doing it, so I had to figure it out.”
Her daughter Kalani is a junior at Brookings High School, and son Sajen is a sophomore. She said she wasn’t going to let them have an app on their phone if she didn’t understand how to use it and protect them.
Family memories
Perry’s grandmother baked all the time, so she said the smell of cookies, molasses and ginger, the nostalgic part of baking, reminds her of her grandma.
One of her favorite articles she’s written was for South Dakota Magazine, a previous November/December issue. She was able to do it with her grandma.
“[My grandma] was getting older and she always made this white cookie and everyone in the family loved this white cookie, but no one had learned how to make that,” Perry said. “So I said I could go learn how to make those.”
She spent the day with her grandma making the cookies. The magazine published her story and the photos she took for their two-page spread.
“When it got published, my grandma carried a copy around in her purse,” Perry said.
The following October, Perry’s grandma went into assisted living and had no kitchen, without which she would not have learned how to make the cookies and the article would not have been possible.
Even though the article was published years ago, Perry said seeing her article and the pho- tos she took printed in a magazine had her hooked.
“I love telling a story about somebody; it made people happy,” Perry said. “That’s what I want, I want people to laugh, cry, to feel something when they read.”
More than blogging
Aside from her blogging, Perry also works as the corporate communications manager at Daktronics and writes freelance articles for magazines in both South Dakota and Minnesota.
She has had articles published with Hungry for Truth and the Edina Magazine, located right outside of the Twin Cities.
She first learned Edina Magazine was looking for freelance writers through a friend, the magazine’s editor, whom she met on social media; each had read the other’s blogs and the friendship grew from there.
For one story, Perry went to three local grocers in the Edina area and wrote about her favorite items at each place.
Despite the variety of writing she performs on a regular basis, Perry said she does not have a favorite.
Her work at Daktronics is more executive communications, less creative writing. In magazine writing, she tries to match the tone of whatever publication she is working with while keeping bits of her sassy, unique style that is always employed on her blog.
“No matter what it is, I try to be telling a story,” Perry said.
Becoming part of Brookings
In the past year, Perry has become even more immersed in the Brookings community. Previously living in Verdi, Minn., she purchased and recently moved into a house in town.
She also converted to Catholicism through classes at St. Thomas More Catholic Church and was officially confirmed on Easter Sunday in April.
When Perry met her longtime boyfriend in 2002, she started attending Mass with him. But the decision to convert did not come about for 13 years.
“I’m not easily influenced or swayed; I don’t conform,” Perry said. “I have to come to decisions myself with my own information and decide that that is right for me.”
She made the decision in the fall of 2015. When she met with a sister at the church, Perry said she felt the presence of God in the room and knew she was in the right place.
After going through the confirmation classes, Perry was also baptized since she had not chosen to be as a child. Growing up, her family attended First Church of God in Brookings, now Morningside Community Church.
Her family was very involved: attending church, Sunday school and youth group each week and church camp every summer. Despite the fact that no one else in her family is Catholic, Perry said they were all supportive of her decision.
“None of us are judgmental about what church we attend,” Perry said. “If we’re all in heaven together, that’s what we care about. It’s about living the life that God wants us to live while we’re here now.”
Make it happen
Something notably important for Perry is telling her children whenever she accomplishes a feat or is asked to write, or be the subject of, a story.
She wants them to see how things evolve and know that nothing is an overnight success.
“All these things I share with them because I want them to learn things don’t come easy,” Perry said. “But if there’s some- thing you want to do and accomplish, things will fall into place and things will happen, but you have to make them happen yourself.”
Because she is so busy, most of the baking Perry does is event-based: if she is having company, if it’s a co-worker’s birthday or if someone in her work group is leaving. It has become a tradition for her to bake something and bring it to work on those occasions.
Most kids don’t question whether or not their mom’s baking is for them, but she said her kids are shocked when it’s actually something they get to eat.
She bakes for wedding receptions, the annual East- Central CASA Fire & Ice event and even taught a cookie-deco- rating class at The Carrot Seed, among other things. She is also working on a proposal for a cookbook, which she is deter- mined to have published no matter how long it takes.
Whether she’s working at Daktronics full-time, picking up freelance articles when she can, traveling for her son’s hockey games or baking another per- fect cheesecake, it’s all part of Perry’s plan.
“Nobody is doing anything for me,” Perry said. “That’s why I do a lot. I could sit around and do nothing, but what fun would that be?”
