Bimol Oinam
IMPHAL, December 21: With Christmas and New Year celebrations ahead, the demand for cakes has soared up in the state aided partly by new age bakers who have stepped in with their baking skills and innovative cake designs.Theme based cakes as per choice and cakes with edible photographs of cartoon characters and real persons are now the order of the day. IFP talks to one such baker in Imphal who started cake baking for friends and family and ended up starting a popular `dial a cake` service.
Michelle Salam of Moirangkhom Sougaijam Leirak in Imphal, earlier a home-maker and a mother of two now wears one more hat of being a self made entrepreneur. Michelle`s cake business named “Michelle’s Sweet Temptations” is operated from her home and earlier thrived on the basis of a strong word of mouth practice amongst satisfied customers and has now grown into a unique customer interactive service thanks to social networking site Facebook.
In an interaction with IFP Michelle, an economics graduate from Sophia’s College, Mumbai said,”I ventured into this whole cake baking enterprise by sheer chance without any specialized knowledge of baking cakes.” It was her husband who motivated her into the art of baking. “13 years back I baked my first cake at home and presented it to my husband. To my utter surprise, he not only relished the cake but asked me to prepare more of them!” she said. Soon, Michelle began to bake cakes for family and friends for special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries at leisure. Thereafter, she began to receive orders from acquaintances.
Now, she maintains a Facebook page titled “Michelle’s Sweet Temptations” where she regularly uploads photos of her home-baked cakes of different designs and flavors. Her clients are mostly from the Facebook who make special orders for birthdays, anniversaries and other festive occasions with marriage season bringing in busy hours shaping cakes and designing as per customer needs and personal choices. “Thanks to the internet and Facebook specially, many of the Manipuri diaspora and those living within the country are able to reach me, choose designs and themes and even ask for their own designs,” says Michelle who has made use of another online mechanism of taking payment for orders for cakes via PayPal. An avid interest in fine arts and drawing aided in Michelle`s cake making and a look at Michelle`s Sweet Temptations page on Facebook gives evidence of the appreciation for her near perfect decoration and finishing touches.
Started from the confines of her house, Michelle`s Sweet Temptations engages a team of five other bakers currently working in the cake shop. Michelle hopes to expand her shop and cater to her clients` demands with a wide range of delicious cakes all occasions.
And while cakes engraved with the images of popular cartoon characters like Chota Bheem and Ben-10 are popular among children and parents for birthday orders, the festive season theme is what is keeping Michelle busy with Santa Claus being a huge favourite.