I am always excited around Birthdays and Anniversaries, not mine but my near and dear ones. I start planning weeks ahead, thinking of new surprises every year. I like to capture the 'Ah' moment, the smile on their faces, the glint in their eyes.
This year was no different. With January and February being celebratory months in the family I had started scurrying for THE surprise well in advance. But things weren't quite adding up, until Facebook came to my salvage. I had been following Gauri's blog for a while now, and the artistry and imagination that goes into baking her cakes is insane! So I thought why not try customized cakes for hubby's 30th birthday and Mom-Dad's 30th anniversary; it would definitely be a shift from our usual loyal friend, the Black Forest.
A Facebook search led me to the Noida based home bakery, Truffle Muffle and I was sold in few seconds as I scrolled down the fantastic display of her cake pictures.
I ordered a Minion Cake for my 'Óne-in-a-Minion-Hubby' and the vanilla-blueberry cake was way beyond my expectations, and the look on M's face priceless! The minion figurine still sits at his work desk!
For my parents it was the Scrabble cake. The moist chocolate cake with butterscotch crunch filling was devoured within 48 hours!
Work of art, aren't these? But what's even more amazing and inspiring is the young face behind it all. Drishti Anand at just 23 years of age has achieved what only a few of us can dream of.
What inspired you to start Truffle Muffle? We would love to know the story of the birth of this home bakery?
I have been running Truffle Muffle, a home bakery, for a little more than 2 years now.
These two years have been life changing to say the least; I used to earlier teach in a school as a nursery teacher..haha!! ya!
I was a teacher for a year and used to take a few orders as a part time thing. Soon I realized that I was not happy with just another job. It had actually started much before...Post college, while I was still deciding on what to do in life, I taught chocolate making whilst doing a nursery teacher's training course. Casually I asked my Dad one day if I could start a home bakery doing designer cakes, he agreed and that was it!! So if you see it was very random...I used to do bake a lot when I was still in school, and love it...Infact I used to help my Mom as a kid too and we used to make dry cakes for home eating.
There has been a huge spurt in cake and baking industry, especially start ups and home bakeries. What makes Truffle Muffle stand out?
I think I really believe in quality and not quantity. There are a fixed number of cakes I can actually do in a day, which is very less as everything is prepared from scratch; the cake batter as well as the fondant I use is homemade!!NO PREMIXES!!
I also believe in constantly trying out new things. Apart from cakes, I also do dessert jars available in different sizes, cake pops and designer cupcakes.
For valentine this year I have introduced BOX OF LOVE!! It has loads of yummy goodies, a mix of all things we do, and I am very excited to see the response it gets. :)
How do you keep yourself updated with the 'in' cake trends. Any favourite baker or couture cake websites you follow?
There are lots of them but one such inspiration would be McGreevy Cakes I just love her creations!! Yes,trends in the cake world keep changing and we have to be updated...with the internet it is easy to explore and learn from many online common forums where genuine knowledge is shared.
Just good baking isn't enough right? Customers always want something new, something creative. Do you feel pressured sometimes with customer demands, and how do you cope up with it?
In fact more than baking etc, I feel pressured when people call me to tell they hate fondant and I just don't know where to start from. I want to tell them that they have to eat mine to change the perception. :P
I mean fondant is made of sugar and it will be sweet but they come up with things like its gummy,chewy over over sweet, very thick etc. It really gets difficult because they have had terrible designer cakes experiences and it is difficult to change their perceptions.
Yes I do have to come up with different flavors in designer cakes which gets difficult as we can't do much of creams etc as that might spoil the look of the cake but I do try to make it as moist and as tasty as I can, yet keeping it a designer piece.
What are the future plans for Truffle Muffle?
Future plans are to have a big bakery with an attached workshop and a talented team of designers!! haha!!
Any advice to youngsters who follow the same passion as you and want to start out in this industry?
I would like to say, above all else do what you enjoy the most and make it your profession. Then sleepless nights because of work or all day long handwork will not seem tiring at all and trust me you'll love it!!!
A Dabangg themed cake
A Baby Shower Cake
Hop on to her FB page now to see more such fabulous cakes. I know you can't wait! :)