Apart from baking cakes on orders, young women entrepreneur Prajwala Naik, conducts ‘Sugaribake’ classes to teach others her baking secrets and is now all set to open a new bakery related project in Goa
BHARATI PAWASKAR
Started two years ago, in October 2016 to be precise, Prajwala Naik of ‘Sugaribake’ is a popular name in Goa. Especially when it comes to ordering a yummy cake, for a birthday party or structural cake for wedding, or learning how to bake one yourself. She enjoys conducting classes and sharing her secrets with others and students of all ages flock to learn from her.
In the past two years around 1,400, young and old people, have learnt the art of baking a cake from her. It’s not only young girls, middle aged or elderly women who learn from her, but enthusiastic men also enroll their names for her cake, bread and puff pastry classes.
“Most of the men who join my classes have an interest in baking. Some of them are professionals bakers who want to upgrade and improve their baking skills. My last class was on October 21 in Porvorim. Out of the 15 students, five were men,” smiles Prajwala, who holds a MBA but later on went on to do a Pastry Chef Certification Course and some specialised baking related courses
Prajwala conducts all types of baking and confectionery classes in Porvorim, Margao and occasionally in Ponda too. She has customised hampers freshly baked on order which begin at Rs 499. She would be conducting baking classes during Diwali holiday too.
Prajwala’s speciality is customised cakes made in variety of flavours and designs. Orders are accepted at least four days in advance. She avoids taking last minute orders due to prior commitments.
The young baker offers a variety of cake flavours such as midnight mint chocolate, rasmalai, rose chocolate, Cadbury silk truffle, Belgium chocolate etc. All her cakes are made with her signature moist cake. In her ‘Sugaribake’ classes. she teaches theory and offers after class support too. To encourage her students to bake, she conducts cake baking competitions for them. The last competition had cash prizes worth Rs 8,000.
Associated with Goan Foodomania, a Facebook group that has thousands members who share their recipes with each other and help each other grow, Prajwala asserts that it is one of the best Facebook groups to increase one’s food related business in Goa.
“Goan Foodomania definitely helped me a lot in my initial stages to get students. The group members continue to recommend my name to others,” shares a thankful Prajwala who also believes in open secrets and likes to share her secret recipes and tips with others.
“I feel, keeping recipes secret to yourself has no value now-a-days. People appreciate you more when you share your recipe with them. I feel when my students grow eventually and equally I too grow along with them. I have many students who are now successful home bakers and I am so proud of them.”
Prajwala’s classes are attended by people from all walks of life - the younger crowd constitutes 30 per cent, middle aged are more, almost 50 per cent, while elderly make up about 10 per cent.
She teaches to make couverture chocolates, breads in over 20 varieties, rich dough breads, Indian sweets, baked desserts, baked yogurt, 3D jelly cakes, premix cakes, premix gravy, pastas and soups, cakes and creaming, dudhacho falar (milk sweets), glass desserts, butter and margarine puff pastry, croissant, egg and eggless Macaroon, egg and eggless Marshmallow, fondant cakes, wedding cakes, 3D structural gravitational cakes, tarts and pies, cakesicles, brownies and ice creams.
“I have learnt from well-known (national and international) cake artists. One of the institutes where I studied is the Lavonne Academy from Bengaluru which is believed to be one of the top pastry schools in India. The other is Polka Dot Cake Academy. Also I love to do my own experiments with food and change original recipes according to taste. Experience is the biggest teacher, I sincerely feel,” shares Prajwala.
She had a keen interest in baking since her early childhood. Coming from a business family, it was her dream of starting her own business someday.
Fees for her classes range from Rs 1000 to Rs 22,000, depending upon the kind of specialisation. “For one day cake class, I charge Rs 2400, for half day bread class it’s Rs 2000, for one day Macaron class it’s Rs 1500 and for sweets it’s Rs 1000,” informs Prajwala. The fees for structural wedding cake classes ranges from Rs 11,000 to Rs 22,000. She uses social media to create awareness about her classes and word of mouth publicity by her network keeps bringing her eager students.
One of her client’s stated that, at a birthday party, the guests took more pictures of the cake baked by Prajwala than the birthday boy. Appreciating comments like these, she states, “It fills me with joy when people to recognise me for my work.”
Ever since her first class, Prajwala has never looked back and now plans to unveil a new project. “I am coming up with a new bakery related project soon,” she announces on a happy note.
