Home baking not a piece of cake!

Running a home bakery isn't a cakewalk. Functioning mainly from their kitchens at home, the pandemic has highlighted the genius of several chefs out there. Lovely double-barrel cakes with a unique design and an artistic touch not only tickles your taste buds but also proves that they are a treat to your eyes.

Home bakers grew in popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic and this professional baker converted her hobby into an occupation. "Bakeries were shut during the pandemic and this gave birth to an array of possibilities. The journey began as one of my friends asked me to sell a home baked food product to him and I went along with the decision. Since there weren't a lot of bakeries that were specifically meant for cakes in Mysore, I started baking and there would be a weekly menu with five items on it. As this began, I received some orders and hence, invested time in baking every day," says Samyuktha Alwar, a professional baker. Social media was a huge advantage. "After six months, I got used to this and started to organise my plans where I created a Google business page along with a logo. Furthermore, I uploaded a monthly menu instead of changing the food items on it every single week which eventually turned into a permanent menu," she says.

"I bake extremely elegant wedding cakes and 'tall cakes' as I'd like to call them. Each of them have a unique design especially the one with the 'drip and drop' style. When it comes to the maximum number of orders on the menu, Korean Buns were quite popular as they would get sold out easily. The price range was about Rs.80-300 in the beginning and Rs.80-500 in the later stages of my business. Sometimes I would take four-five hours to bake and other times, it would take me all night to complete baking the orders received," she adds.

Moving ahead is important even though you have to deal with a slew of oddball challenges. "As I didn't have a specific recipe, improving it was always a goal however, it would be a problem as some customers had different preferences. Most of them would be happy with the products, but it's necessary to accept the fact that you cannot satisfy each and every customer. Ultimately, it's important to keep moving forward with your ideas because you don't have to wait until you are good at something, you learn along the way," she concludes.