Tag Archives: Nadia Aslam – Cake Maker – Goa

From Designing Clothes To Designing Cakes: The Journey of a Hijabi Cake Artist From Panjim

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Women/Girls(since May26-2021), , , , , , , , , , ,

Panjim, GOA:

Nadia with the GoWomania Award 2023

Nadia Aslam, a resident of Panjim, Goa has always had a love for baking cakes. She used to bake delicious cakes for get-togethers and her close friends, but that changed when she went to college to study textile designing. She started a boutique business for a few years after college before having her first child. Nadia returned to making cakes as a career in 2016 after a gap of two years to devote more time to caring for her newborn.

“I shifted from designing clothes to designing cakes,” the 40-year-old cake artist explained to Two Circles.

Nadia has baked over 2000 cakes and pastry products, including cupcakes, for weddings, birthdays, and corporate events in the last seven years.

Nadia’s designer cakes

Challenges Faced in the Baking Business

Nadia faced several hurdles at the start of her professional career as a pastry artist. “I began very small. Because I used to earn little money, I would reinvest it in buying more stuff to meet the requirements,” she explained. 

Nadia and her family used to live in a modest residential society that didn’t have a lift or enough space in the flat where she could set up her baking business in the early years. “For the business and classes, I needed space and a lift for efficient transportation because the bakery products are very fragile,” she explained.

Nadia moved to a larger flat for the sake of her business endeavour. Then after four years of baking at home, she rented a small property solely for cake production and hired an employee. 

One of the major issues Nadia still encounters is a power outage while baking cakes, as well as bad roads, which leads to the fraying of the cake.

According to Nadia, it takes 17 hours to prepare, make, bake, and decorate a single cake. It became difficult when she began receiving orders for great corporate events and large parties. She said her customers want her to focus more on the decoration and general presentation of the sweet delicacies, which takes a lot of time and work.

Nadia’s creations

Earlier Nadia was preoccupied with household chores, raising children, and running the cake shop. “It messed up my sleep schedule, and I was frequently sleep-deprived,” she explained.

‘Men Should Encourage Their Wives’: Nadia Receives Support From Her Family

Nadia faced challenges, but she also received tremendous emotional support for her business from her family. Her husband, Rehan Shaikh, was always encouraging and helpful, from getting baking supplies to delivering cake orders. 

“Men should encourage their wives,” said Rehan, beaming with pride at her success. Shaikh is in charge of handling the accounting of the cake business.

Nadia is assisted by her three children, aged 17, 14, and 12, in addition to her husband and two employees. “My kids help me after school and during the holidays,” she explained.

Nadia with her family

Teaching Women How to Bake

Nadia shared her experiences as a Muslim Hijabi pastry artist. “We Muslim women can financially support our families while practicing Islam and following its guidelines,” she said.

Nadia stated that her mother, a former beautician, is her greatest inspiration. 

Aside from baking cakes, Nadia offers paid baking workshops that last two to three months and has taught hundreds of women how to bake and decorate cakes. Nadia hopes to build an academy where women bakers learn from chefs from all over the world.

The ‘Moist choco truffle’ is the most popular item in her diverse menu of cakes. “It’s my customers’ all-time favourite item, and they often come back to request more,” she explained.

Nadia teaching her students to bake

Receives Order From Across India

Nadia does not currently own a shop, but she receives a large number of orders through her Instagram and Facebook pages.

“We not only get orders from Goa, but also from Mumbai, Maharashtra, Belgaum, Bangalore, Tamil Nadu, and other places,” she explained. Nadia uses roadways to  deliver cakes within 100 kilometers of Goa, and railways to deliver cakes to Mumbai, Belgaum, and other distant locations.

Nadia received multiple awards for her cake-making abilities, including the “Star of the Month” award from Gowomania Goa, an organisation of Gaon women, in 2017. 

Sobiya Inamdar is an independent reporter based in India

source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> Indian Muslim> Lead Story> TCN Positive> Women / by Sobiya Inamdar, TwoCirlces.net / August 29th, 2023

Meet the hijabi cake artist of Goa

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, , , , ,

Panjim, GOA :

Nadia Aslam, a young cake artist, has set up an inspiring example of entrepreneurship by starting her own business from home and becoming a known cake artist in Goa capital city, Panjim, within the span of a few years.

Nadia graduated in home science. One of her hobbies was stitching. Despite being a mother of three kids, she preferred to follow her passion and prepare bakery stuff on the special occasions of her close ones. She then realised that she can turn her passion into a business, with her mother’s support. She began to accept customized orders from people and is now one of the best cake artists in the city.

Nadia also takes cake making classes regularly under the banner of “Nadia’s Sweetooth”. she has trained dozens of girls to become “Atmnirbhar’ [self-sufficient].

Speaking to Muslim Mirror Nadia said, “Muslim women in Hijab can take up a business and support the family, as an entrepreneur. I realised that all we need are opportunities, and support from our family to exhibit our ideas and creativity in business.

”We can support our families financially while practising Islam and following its guidelines,” she added.

The reason why Nadia’s mother was her biggest supporter was that her mother was also a beautician long back and as it is said “An artist can only understand the definition of art”. Maybe Nadia has also inherited the art of creativity and beautification from her mother as can be clearly seen in her work. The startup wasn’t a child’s play.

Coping up with the timings of household chores, care of three kids and baking ruined her sleep several times. She hardly has time to rest as one whole cake took 17 hours of preparation to get completely ready. Also, it became tougher when she began to receive orders from the corporate sectors and grand parties. Keeping taste, decoration and creativity on a track called “perfect” is her art, and she handles it in a perfect way. And people give a lot of love to it.

In five-year span, Nadia has made approximately 2000 cakes and other bakery products including cupcakes. She says that customers command more concentration on the decoration and overall presentation of the cake, which requires a lot of time and efforts.

Orders from wedding parties, corporate sectors, birthday parties, festival celebrations and many more huge functions requires a perfect decoration with eloquent creativity. To provide a perfect taste while handling the measures of sugar syrup and fondant is also a task.

Nadia has bagged the Achievers award 2018, Proud award 2019. Gowomania Goa has also felicitated her with “star of the month 2017” and 2018 consecutively.

Speaking with Muslim Mirror, Nadia’s husband Rehan Shaikh expressed happiness over her success. He further said that there is nothing if a woman pursues her career while following Islamic guidelines. Men should support their wives to prove their abilities.

Dr Afreen Karol, who is one of Nadia’s ”satisfied” customers, said, ”Nadia is the one who makes my dream cakes into a reality, whatever the occasion, and however weird my request for the cake might be, she nails it every time and it tastes heavenly, good looking cakes can also be tasty, only if Nadia bakes them.”

source: http://www.muslimmirror.com / Muslim Mirror / Home> Featured / by Imran Inamdar and Sobiya Inamdar / March 08th, 2021