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-Ayshwaria Lakshmi
Albert Einstein remains relevant forever. He says, “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”. Passion towards baking quality products leads this baker to achieve more accolades.
Ashneet Kaur, the founder of Mumbai based Ashi Creations, holds a management degree. However, her deep interest and persistence towards baking, make her attempt a moving car-cake in 2016. She was a beginner in the world of baking with 10 months of elementary proficiency. She made this as on experiment basis for her own birthday. On seeing this, she got her first big order for this innovative cake. “I worked 13 hours straight to crack it and got her first pay-cheque. of course, when I see today, I feel like I undercharged for that cake, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way as I was too excited,” she adds.
Ashneet’s gives all credits to her father, an engineer, to whom she disclosed her interest to create this cake. She still recalls his words : I am there. Even if anything goes wrong, I will help you. But first, you need to do it on your own. To her, this was the encouragement she needed to crack the moving cake. “This experience helped me learn from my mistakes and create my own do’s and don’ts,” Ashneet adds. She went to make more innovations in her Ashi creations such as anti-gravity heart cake and Chandelier cake.
Her interest in baking started with making chocolates for her friends. Astonished by the taste, her friends would order from her. Later on, when she was working, her colleagues would ask her for her famous Jar cakes. Almost every day, she would have orders for her Jar cakes.
“Even after 12-14 hours of work, I would come home to bake. Baking would calm me and I always enjoyed baking even after a tough and a long day,” said Ashneet.
Ashneet recalls her first attempt to partner with a store to sell her oreo pops. “I walked into the grocery shop where I usually buy. I was skeptical at first, but still went ahead and asked the owner if he would sell my oreo pops in his shop.” This was in 2018. To her surprise, the owner accepted and asked her to send across some samples first. 10 days later, she was selling at 8 shops in her surroundings. This helped her realized that there is a huge world outside, all she had to do was reach out to get it done.
This was her beginning into the world of bakery. She went ahead took orders from her relatives, friends and colleagues. Ashi creations as a result of the decision she had to choose when she was getting married in 2017. “As I was pondering over what I should choose between Baking or job. I realized the job will not give joy to create something on my own. I wanted to spread sweetness and smile. Then, came Ashi creations, my baby I need to nourish and grow,” Ashneet reminisces.
In 2018, Ashneet received the youngest entrepreneur award from her religious community called the Young Sikh Leader when was 18. “This was the encouragement I needed. I understood from this that, If I give all my dedication towards my passion, the sky is the limit,” she adds. To her, this made her stick on to her decision even when she heard ‘No’ for others. This was award was not just an encouragement to her, it was a life lesson. She started working hard on her passion, practicing, and sticking around patiently.
She went ahead to get a diploma certification in patisserie and confectionery from ITM Institute of Hotel Management, Nerul. She also attended various workshops to build her skill in the field. Ashneet says “Everyone of us out there, we are fighting to get flight space. But I would say don’t run after it. I would advise starting with our specialty, something we are good at. We would get our flight space.”
With an FSSAI-certified kitchen, Ashneet still runs her business single-handedly with big plans for Ashi creations. She recently started her own YouTube channel too. She plans to scale up her business, do more innovative workshops. She also wants to open up her own shop, create more wedding cakes.
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