Hamsini Appadurai is a coffee planter. Though she’s a trained coffee expert; it was baking that stole her heart. “I even slept with recipe books on my bed. I would browse new recipes and had to try it out. I observed that when I could not sleep, I would bake through the night. It is a stress buster for me. That’s when I decided that this was what I had to do,” says the pretty baker.
She started out as a home baker and three years ago decided to start Delices - a Fine French Patisserie, which is an online store.
“I decided to make it an online store so that even retailing would not take me away from my baking,” she says.
Gradually Hamsini started supplying to cafes “in and around Indiranagar. We started supplying breads, sandwiches, cakes and so on to those restaurants and cafes that did not have their own baking units. The speciality is that we also started to customise the goodies for them.”
“It started off really small. I bought some ovens and hired a small staff. Then took an intensive training at Taj Vivanta and started off Delices for purely commercial purpose.”
Then came the next challenge. “When you give your desserts for free you get great feedback. But when you have to sell it for a price, you are faced with the challenge to create the best within the customer’s budget. Taking criticism was tough initially for me. I also learnt that I needed people to help me with such huge orders and letting them do certain stuff in the baking regimen.”
“Being online is tough as it took a long time for me to build rapport with my customers.
Now after three years I can say that we do at least three to four birthday parties on weekends. I did not want to rely on friends and family to bring the customers. I waited patiently and it has paid off,” she smiles.
To reach out to people who are not active on the Internet she participates in various food shows in the city and also keeps samples at her factory for them to taste and customise their orders.
“As an online store we are able to cut down on retail overheads, we have a production capacity of 500 to 700 cupcakes per hour. Last minute orders are a piece of cake,” she beams.
Delices specialises in macaroons, artisan breads and chocolates, hors de oeuvres, French pastries and decadent desserts.
Hamsini has also come up with a range of Christmas goodies that will leave you spoilt for choice. In spite of the ups and downs hamisni is still crazy about baking. “When I see that smile on my customer’s face, it is my best reward.”
For more about her and her goodies log on to www.delices.in.
