The quintessential homebaker - Harini Sankarnarayan

Have you ever wondered if just baking can make you enough money? Have you put off your baking career because you think you don't have enough kitchen space? Have you started a baking career and stopped because you felt it overwhelming and lonely?  Do you find it hard to price your products? In today's episode we're joined by Cindana Manickavel, the founder of My Sugar Monkeys. She started her baking journey with a single order of cake jars and 6 years later, she's established her cake business as one the best home bakeries. She shares her entire journey of ups and downs in a very candid chat with us.  Also, stick around till the end because she shares the exact strategy on how to get and execute corporate orders. She also opens up about behind the scenes of The Great Madras Bake Sale.

She graduated from college and had a great corporate job. She seemed to be on the right track, but little did she know attending a weekend baking class would change her life forever. Today we're joined by the wildly successful Karthika Sravanthi of Bakeman Begins. In this episode she opens up about her experience in Le Cordon Bleu and working at ITC, starting a home bakery from scratch, continually upskiling oneself in the baking industry and finally whether clients are open to new pastries and how to launch them.

In this episode, we're joined by Harini Sankarnarayan. She talks to us about how her baking journey started with reading Enid Blyton books, her experience doing a degree in hotel management in the 80's. Furthermore, she shares great insights on baking with minimal supplies from a home kitchen, pricing your products even when there isn't a fixed menu and experimenting with new flavors. Also, stay tuned till the end to hear what she has to say about the baking community in Chennai - is it just fierce competition and animosity or is there a true support system.

Her grandma baked, her mum baked and she started baking when she was in school. But it was only when she set out on a quest to bake the perfect brownie that she realised she could bake her way into a professional career. In this episode, we're joined by Samyukta Vale of Bake My Day and she opens up about running a home bakery as a solopreneur over the past six years. Listen in as she describes her experience of interning at a professional kitchen in ITC, how her baking business got featured heavily across the media and the entire process that goes behind creating a signature dish. We also talk about the increasing effect social media has on business and struggles of being consistent on social media while managing an entire business single handedly.

A quick sneak peak into what Bittersweet Baking is about and how it helps you