Cakestry, a delectable venture, was born out of Fathima Iqbal’s passion for baking and her love for sweets and confectionery. Founded in June 2015 as a proprietorship in Kochi, Cakestry has been delighting taste buds with its fresh, homemade, and handcrafted cakes. In this exclusive interview, Fathima Iqbal shares her baking journey, signature creations, and future plans for Cakestry.
Fathima Iqbal, a Computer Engineer, is not only a loving mother to her kids but also a dedicated home baker with an undying passion for the art of baking.
Today, we have with us the talented home baker Fathima Iqbal and the face behind Cakestry. In this candid conversation with ConflatingVisions, she shares with our readers her inspiring journey as an entrepreneur.
Hi Fathima, welcome to this interview session of conflatingVisions. To start with the session, we would request you to say a few lines about yourself.
I am Fathima Iqbal, a Computer Engineer and Mother of Kinder Gardener Ehan Fahad and Toddler Eira Fahad. Basically, I am a homemaker with a passion for baking and an ardent lover of sweets and confectionery.
How did you learn to bake?
In 2012 during our stay in Saudi Arabia, we used to visit a store called Saadeddin, where they tried new dishes on regular customers for feedback.
Further, I started preparing new dishes on my own and trying them on my husband and his friends (Mr Shehin, Mr Faris, Mr Fardheen and Shenza) which ended up in going for training under Incredible Art & Indulgence.
If given a choice to enrol for a baking course at a baking school, which baking school would you opt for?
Depends on the course content and my liking for contents, schedule and orders.
How was your first baking experience?
I made a very simple chocolate cake for my son which demanded the most minimal ingredients! And that is how I preferred it, considering the fact that I was baking for the first time. Before cooking, I made sure I had all the required ingredients and vessels by my side.
Please give us an overview of your baking venture Cakestry. What motivated you to pursue baking professionally?
My brothers started giving me orders through their friends.
While I was doing this my husband used to tell me to put my creations on Facebook, whereas I was shy to publicise my creations. He used to put them on Facebook.
Later in April 2016, when he came back from Saudi Arabia, we made it to a brand called Cakestry coinciding terms Cakes + Pastry. Further, when I started getting repeated orders, I took it seriously.
My Sister in law extended her support in setting up cake mixers and equipments. We are thankful to our friend Mr Aju who guided us in the branding.
How do you add your creativity to the cake-baking recipes?
We provide fresh home-baked handcrafted cakes on order. Our Cakes are non-alcoholic and free from preservatives, margarine, and filler ingredients. So we try flavouring from natural flavouring agents. For example, for orange cakes, we take natural orange peel, for strawberry cakes we take strawberry fruit, etc. We don’t use essences and flavouring esters. Further, when it comes to shape we try many designs based on customer-proposed themes.
What are some of the signature products of Cakestry? Which one is your personal favourite?
The signature products of Cakestry are Butterscotch Cake, Van Choc Blended Cake and Red Velvet Cake. Apart from that my personal favourite is macarons. Nowadays, I also make brownies and meringue cookies.
How tough and difficult is baking as a profession? How do you deal with the difficulties?
Accuracy is everything. Timing, temperature, weighing of ingredients, etc are the major things to look for in home baking.
From my experience, transporting a finished decorated cake is the most difficult thing for a baking business. After spending so much time designing multitier cakes, a simple bump or jerk during transportation is sufficient for the entire effort to go for a toss. For this, some solution has to be worked out, as people dislike hard cakes which are actually strong enough to withstand bumps or jerks during transportation.
For difficult situations, I divide the problem into the smallest possible activities and arrive at the solution for each activity. While doing home baking, the toughest thing is handling my kids who come in between as testers. Support of family is most important in home baking.
If you are given a chance to fix a failure of yours, what would you do?
I accept failure if it has happened. There is no plan B for fixing failures in baking as time is a key ingredient and moments can’t be recreated. Customer satisfaction cant be brought back by saying sorry. Hence we consider customer satisfaction as an integral part of our job than a favour.
If you want someone to bake something special for you, who would it be and why?
My kids baking a simple cake for me. There wouldn’t be anything more special than that cake!
What are your future plans for Cakestry?
We want to develop Cakestry into an aggregator of likeminded home bakers from different cities and develop an app similar to Uber/Olx /Dabbawala/BlueApron/Makemytrip where homemakers shall be located by App and orders could be made. My husband is working on options since he is a co-founder.
Training of future bakers is another expansion possibility where I am getting a lot of enquiries.
Supermarket-based online trading of home baker-specific tools, consumables and raw materials is another concept we have in mind.
How can a person get started with baking?
Initially work hard on your passion to learn than to earn, and things will fall in line. From the Internet, we can get a lot of ideas, tutorials, flavours, combinations, etc. This is how I started.
Anything else you want to share…
We wish to be part of initiatives which celebrate important days at old age homes and orphanages on a monthly basis at subsidized pricing and be part of their happiness.
Similarly, I have read a WhatsApp message saying about a practice in Germany where a person orders a cup of coffee for himself and one on the wall. One on the wall shall go to a needy person, and this kind of culture shall develop in our country too.
And, one last question of this session, if you have had one wish…
I wish people love to live life than spend their time and life competing and comparing themselves with their surroundings,
I wish people to spare quality time and interactions with their loved ones without hurry berry to succeed, and make more money. May God Bless All.
