Hi y'all, I'm Samara

My name is Krystal Samara, but most of y'all know me as Samara. I'm a mother, a baker, a woman in recovery, and the heart behind Bite Me Goodies.

I grew up in Alvarado, Texas, where my love for baking started long before I ever dreamed of owning a business. When I was 11, I made a strawberry bundt cake at my Aunt Nancy's house. I decorated it myself, proud of every little detail. She kept a picture of that cake on her refrigerator, and I've never forgotten how special that made me feel. Looking back, that was one of the first times I understood how something made with love could mean so much.

Life moved quickly after that. At 16, I moved to Arkansas, and at 17, I became a mother. My own mom signed me up for cake decorating classes, which led to my first cake job. By 19, I had two children and was figuring out how to build a future for us. I went on to earn my degree in Hospitality Administration, but life wasn't always as sweet as the things I loved to bake.

I've experienced loss, made difficult choices, and struggled with addiction. Those chapters are part of my story, but they aren't the whole story. Getting sober and rebuilding my life taught me about faith, resilience, gratitude, and starting again. I'm proud of my sobriety and grateful for the opportunity to keep growing into the woman I'm becoming.

Through every season, baking remained something I could come back to. And eventually, Bite Me Goodies began with me, my mom's donut pan, and a kitchen full of ideas. I was a mom experimenting with cake donuts, making batch after batch, and wondering what would happen if I treated a simple donut like a full-blown dessert.

I didn't want plain or forgettable. I wanted bold flavors, rich toppings, unexpected combinations, and desserts that made people take one bite and say, "Wait... that's a donut?" One experiment led to another, and before long, my little microbakery was growing right alongside my imagination. Today, that creativity has grown into 75 flavors and counting.

When I started sharing my baking and behind-the-scenes journey online, something beautiful happened. People showed up. They watched the experiments, celebrated the wins, laughed through the chaos, and encouraged me through the hard days. They became my Bite Me Besties and Bros. What started as a baking business became a community, and that community helped create the little world we now call the Goodieverse.

Somewhere along the way, my Besties started calling me the Cake Donut Queen. I didn't crown myself. That title came from the people who believed in me, and that's what makes it special. I wear it with gratitude, a little sass, and a whole lot of love.

My name has been part of that journey, too. I used to go by Krystal, but as I started building Bite Me Goodies, I began going by Samara. It felt like a name that belonged to the future I was creating. Some people still know me as Krystal, and that's okay, but Samara is who I prefer to be called. I'm not pretending my past never happened. I'm choosing what I build from it.

I've lived and baked in different places across the South, and every chapter has shaped me. Today, I'm building Bite Me Goodies from Elgin, Texas, in the Austin area, with the same heart I had when I first picked up that donut pan.

My priorities are simple: God 1st, family, goodies, Besties and Bros. My faith keeps me grounded, my family gives me purpose, baking gives me a way to create, and this community reminds me that none of us has to do life alone.

That's also why I believe in #BeAFloaty. We can all be somebody's floaty, helping hold each other up when life gets heavy. Sometimes that means encouragement, sometimes it means showing up, and sometimes it means reminding someone to keep going. A little kindness can carry more weight than we realize.

I'm not building Bite Me Goodies to look perfect. I'm building something real, something creative, and something that means more than what's in the bakery box. I believe in growing intentionally, learning as I go, and appreciating every person who chooses to be part of this journey.