Baking and selling cakes out of her family's house in Chaffee, Mo. wasn't something that Southeast Missouri State University alumna Christa Beck thought she'd be doing after she graduated with a degree in finance.

Beck was working part time for Northwestern Mutual when she quit her job a few days before graduation to pursue a career in culinary arts.

"When I told my dad I was quitting to bake cakes he didn't talk to me for two days," Beck said. "But when I showed him how making cakes was paying the bills, he was OK with it."

Shortly after graduation Beck was hired as the pastry chef for Dalhousie Golf Club where she was in charge of all the desserts, special events cakes and making up the menus. She said that it was a better experience than going to a culinary school would have been because it was a very hands-on experience.

One of her favorite cakes was for a flower shop called J. Marie's in Chaffee. Beck and store owner Jodie Schott collaborated on a cake for the store's Christmas open house.

"Most of the credit goes toward her," Schott said. "She's really creative and highly talented. She's fabulous."

Beck made her first cake last April for her niece's birthday out of her Cape Girardeau townhouse that she shared with two other girls.

"It was a mess," former roommate Dani Vitali said. "But I loved every bit of it and so did my dog. It was really neat seeing the ways she came up with the cake designs and how to create them. I brag about her all the time!"

Beck posted a picture of the cake on Facebook and that same day people were commenting on it and asking her to make more. The following weekend she was making cakes for a baby shower, bridal shower and a birthday. She makes three or four cakes a weekend on average.

With no formal training on cake making, Beck learned everything through reality shows such as Cake Boss.

"My roommates hated me because all I did was record cake shows and watch them all the time," Beck said. "It started off just as a hobby."

Beck spends a lot of time in the kitchen and has lots of cuts and burns to prove it. When she first started baking cakes it took her about six to eight hours to make them. Now it only takes about four hours on average.

All of the supplies needed to make the cakes are ordered online and pricing varies for each dessert. The more creative a cake is the more expensive it will be, and making everything from scratch depends on how much the customer is willing to spend.

Beck said that having a degree in finance makes running a business easier, and her background in that field keeps things running smoothly. She hopes to one day open her own cake shop.