When success tastes sweet, literally

Manpriya Singh

We know how behind every successful man there’s a woman, but ever wondered what’s behind every successful woman in the food business? Well, there’s a little bit of the back-story. From the need to chase away boredom, to the desire to be independent, these women bakers from Ludhiana whip up some interesting stories.

Baking is meditation

Rijuta Jain

To enjoy baking is one thing and to find solace in it is quite another! Forty-nine-year-old Rijuta Jain doesn’t recall a challenge she didn’t overcome through her love for making delicacies and seeing people smile when they have it. She is both proud and humbled when the then school and college students that she served out of her takeaway bakery in Udham Singh Nagar come back looking for the same delicacies. “Today they are professionals, some have even moved to other countries but whenever they visit Ludhiana, they come to the bakery and it’s such a warm fuzzy feeling.”

In the food business since 2004, it started through small orders and pre-mixes, followed by which her brand Rishika Foods and bakery Rishika’s Sweet Temptations came into being. A single mother of three children, it’s through baking she found not just financial support but inner strength.

“I inherited this talent from my grandmother. She would be always making mithais at home. In fact, it’s my grandmother’s recipe of caramel cake that is an instant hit among my clientele,” she says.

Ask her about the most interesting cake and it happens to be the one she baked last year. “That was a 56 kg cake made in a single piece,” she recalls the order that was nothing short of a challenge. It was ordered for a gurdwara by a grandson in the memory of his great grandmother. She laughs, “We had to empty the kitchen. It took two days to make it and the moment it was made we requested for delivery because there’s no fridge that could fit in a cake that big.” She signs with a little statement that’s quite heard of but only understood by a fortunate few. “When you are passionate about something, the work becomes meditation.”

Quite cheesy

Ritika Sanwalka

It took 20-something Ritika Sanwalka four years to figure out that she wasn’t cut out for what she was doing in life. She laughs, “I did accessory designing but after completing the course, I decided that I am not cut out for it.” That’s when she found herself enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu in London and in the January of 2016 she started operations. She may have learnt nothing about eggless recipes back in London, back in Ludhiana, she suddenly is doing a lot of eggless recipes, courtesy her fiancé. “In fact, we were scheduled to get married in April but for the virus crisis.”

While the lady swears by her lemon cheese cake and chocolate fudge cake, ask her about the most memorable compliment and she gushes, “When people compare my Banoffee pie to the one at Big Chill in Delhi, it’s a very elating feeling.” Fondant cakes are never going to be on the cards, because, “I personally feel they are never tasty.” The whole focus is on the theme and the look of it all. The best thing about being a baker “is that you get to feed people some really tasty stuff.”

A whole lot of patience goes into baking. “Once things are set in the oven, you can’t open for half an hour to 40 minutes. That wait feels quite a lot,” she says.

Red velvet & more

Rajeeta Jain

A textile designer by profession, Rajeeta Jain admittedly comes from a background where women don’t really work. But then she always wanted to be more than a housewife. That’s when Sugar Bells came into being in 2015. “In fact, we were due to start a venture from a commercial retail space but now given the COVID situation, things have been pushed to 2021,” she shares her plans even before she shares her journey.

After all how long you last in any food business is a test of both your patience and passion, believes the 30-year-old mother of one. The red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting is what the baker would recommend to any first timer, although there’s a range of goodies she bakes, right from birthday cakes to wedding cakes. “Even though the trend of wedding cakes still hasn’t caught up in Ludhiana because people feel there are already too many desserts in the menu,” she says.

But birthdays and festivals keep things more active than she can handle. “I never thought I’d be able to do this, now I am both an entrepreneur and a baker and let’s face it, self earning is one of the best feelings in the world,” a thought, which till date makes her smile all by herself, when she decorates the cakes.

It’s never too late

Neena Madan

When both her sons got busy with their careers, Neena Madan suddenly found herself with ample time to spare. Suddenly a few informal stints with baking fetched a really good response and that’s how she started commercially six years ago. “Before I knew I was doing dry cakes commercially and even extended the endeavour to seasonal pickles and other recipes,” shares the Ludhiana-based 51-year-old, who now even has social media pages by the name Cakes & Desserts. Every day is a new day and the experimentation never really stops, right from the Keto cakes that she receives requests for or the Keto breads that are in vogue.