The world’s come a full circle, at least when it comes to food. From packaged, ready-to-eat food there is a sudden surge towards home cooking and baking using as many “healthy” ingredients as possible. Health awareness has led people to examine the ingredients on the products that they pick up from the market shelves. There are those who are not fretting as they are taking on the onus of baking their own treats and desserts. They are doing it right from their kitchens. After years of baking, they have turned professional home bakers. A few home bakers share their passion, the journey and what keeps them going.
Naheed Rana
A dancer-choroegrapher, I slowed down on dancing after a slipped disc (a gym injury). After surgery, I started baking. Besides cakes, I’m also bake into lasagna, quiche, and savoury tarts. I did a short cookery course and was exposed to facts about the amount of preservatives used in all that we eat. That got me thinking. I come from a family where women baked treats. I decided to follow the same path. I started with the basic sponge cake. When I asked people for recipes, I was surprised to know that not many people baked. That’s when I started experimenting. After many trials, errors and blunders, I understood the art of bakiing and created my own recipes. When I sent my kids snacks I always use stuff from my kitchen and gradually orders started trickling in. I believe baking is coming back in India in a big way as people are realising the food they pick up off the shelves come with preservatives. As they are more health conscious, many women are baking their own desserts and snacks. I feel that any woman with a passion for baking can turn it into a profession from home. Social media also helps boost our customer base.
Swapna Mammen
I bake as baking is my passion. I wanted to do something from home so I could take care of home and keep my passion alive too. My focus is theme-based cakes for weddings and birthdays. I have been baking for three years now and, no, my products don’t have a brand name. I do not advertise and take on orders only by word of mouth as I do not want to be stressed out baking, but just do enough to be creative and enjoy my hobby.
The challenge of being a home baker is making time to bake as you don’t want to disrupt the schedule of the family and children’s education and yet be able to execute an order. Sometimes I work late into the night so that the family is not disturbed. My specialty is the decoration on my cakes, which are mostly 3 D figurines. I do not supply to restaurants or hotels.
For me the ingredients have to be the best and each and every cake is baked with loads of love in my kitchen.
Mohammed Sameer Hussain
Cake Away
It was cooking that got me hooked to baking. Watching my grandmother cook inspired me. I did get a practical training and started exploring French pasteries. Initially I worked from my garage at home which was transformed into a cosy bakery called Cake Away.
Now we have surpassed the challenges of being a home bakers and have started going retail. Though there are others who sell baked stuff for cheaper price, we assure you that the quality that we offer and the ingredients that we use are superior compared to those that you see in the market. Now our garage is a retail outlet where we sell products, take orders and once in a while also have sales. We are doing well though we started off in a humble manner and use instagram to widen our customer base. I do advise people to be aware of baking , if not for making money, at least to know and learn that the world of baking is much more than just black forest cakes.
