Ankita is a full-time lawyer and a part-time baker, or is it just the reverse? So many of us have food dreams; of opening a café on the terrace, or of starting that sea-food joint by the bay. But finally, we settle for the conventional office job, and keep ignoring the pangs of unfulfillment.

Thankfully, Ankita not only opened her own home bakery, but is also doing a mean job at balancing both her professions. So I was curious to know how she manages it, and asked her a few things.

• So, did you start cooking since you were 3, like most chefs we read about?

I wasn’t a typical 3 year old prodigy like the ones in Junior Masterchef, who bake and cook better than most adults. But I’ve grown up in a house where my mother and grandmother loved cooking and cooked several meals. I would help my grandmother mix the batter for cakes abd cut out cookie shapes. So maybe those little things led to an interest.

 

• When did you think of commercializing your skill and passion?

I actually never thought of seriously about commercially taking the baking thing forward. Then I realized the cakes and cupcakes I was baking as gifts, people were really liking them and were more than willing to pay to get some more of it.

 

• Wasn’t your typical Indian family skeptical about your venture?

Yes, as most families, my family never wanted me to switch from mainstream law to baking. And I bake as a passion. I don’t do it with the mindset to earn. And hence the innate interest and joy in the baking. I enjoy creating cakes and seeing people smile when they look at what I’ve made for them.

 

 

• What would your most fulfilling experience be?

I wouldn’t be honest if I say that even baking a batch of cupcakes and piping out clean, pretty rosettes on them are very fulfilling. But the more challenging, difficult designs when complete, are extremely satisfying.

I usually keep at least 4-5 days’ times when taking up big, complicated orders. That’s when I visualize and make the cake in my head. So once it comes out the way I imagine it, its exhausting but very fulfilling.

 

 

• Have you ever goofed up on an order?

Well, every baker has goof-ups, and mine have been probably when I’ve started baking a tad bit late, and the cake didn’t have enough time to cool. As a result, the buttercream rosettes start melting. And this has happened once, where I’ve had to rush it into a fridge to save it, cover one layer with fondant and re-pipe. But it was a learning experience.

 

• Will end with the most clichéd one – So what are your future plans?

Well, a few years down, I wouldn’t mind expansion. But I’m most comfortable in a small set-up where I do everything myself, where I have complete control of quality. I’d love for people to know Cocoa better, and order up to get home-made love-filled cakes.

 

You can check out her page- “Cocoa Bakery“

 

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(Devpurna, in her own words is “The forever hungry Bong lady. Might just be the easiest female to understand – give me food, and I will be happy!”
If you like her blog you can follow her by clicking the Menu Button above 🙂

Her other blogs include Blong…Shong )