An irreparable sweet tooth and boredom from the daily grind of household chores is all that it took for me to find pleasure in baking. While growing up in Dehradun, I got to savour the loveliness of the famous bakeries of the small bazaars and got to gorge on the sweet Christmas goodies every year. With every cake, pie, pastry or cookie that I devoured, my senses opened up to the joy of baking. Th
ere is nothing more soothing than seeing a smiling husband and happy kids. To cheer up my darlings I spent my little free time in baking carrot cakes and various muffins. I sensed the appreciation with the speed in which the cakes and muffins were gobbled down leaving behind a plate full of crumbs. This inspired me to take a one day basic baking class after which I baked a cake for my 5 year old daughter’s birthday. The cake was spot on and along with leaving a good impression on the guests I also bagged myself my first cake order. There was no looking back from that point. I had sleepless nights learning baking and icing techniques from youtube videos, baking and re-baking till 5:00 a.m. My husband, kids and sometimes my cousin sister were my tasting experts who were forced to gobble down 5 different flavours at a time and then comment, while I stood with my hands on my waist, tapping my feet, raising and eyebrow and letting out an exasperated “Well!?”
It took several brainstorming sessions with family members to finally decide a name for my small baking endeavour as my orders were increasing with the word of mouth. Finally, Truly Scrumptious was officially inaugurated as I started handing out my visiting cards on the 16th of January, 2012. The journey till now has been an exciting mix of lovely creations to occasional baking disasters to fixing those blunders, from butter icing to royal icing to fondant and sugar models, from cupcakes to cookies to chocolates, the list goes on. Still creating, still learning, still experimenting and after a long baking day still enjoying the sweet smiles my cakes bring to my daughters’ lips and the approving nod my husband gives after a mouthful of yummy cake.
