“Everyone can bake.”
This is the concept behind Bake’in’s operations aimed at making the idea of baking less intimidating.
The iPad app-based baking class project was established in May 2019 by sole founder Michelle Young.
She found out there was an abundance of people interested in learning how to bake, or who simply wanted to bake a cake for loved ones but lacked the space, ingredients and equipment at home.
So, she decided to do something about it.
“I wanted to create a nice environment where people can just drop by to bake a cake and simply enjoy the process of baking,” Michelle said.
Not quite a piece of cake
Michelle is 26 years old and was in the food and nutrition science field but she’s been passionate about baking since young.
Initially a home baker for the past 2 years, she made the transition to entrepreneurship when she travelled overseas and stumbled upon a pretty and well-organised baking studio.
At that studio, all you had to do was follow the simple steps and guidance they provided you with to bake a cake on your own.
She loved the experience so much that she decided to create something similar back in Malaysia as she had never seen anything like this here before.
Michelle put in over RM200,000 as capital to start up her business.
While she was excited to carry out her dream, she found the transition to be difficult.
“The commitments and responsibilities have certainly been elevated to a whole new level,” she said, “I’m still taking it as a new learning process every day.”
Time management is one of the challenges she cited when we asked her what she found most challenging in her entrepreneurial journey with Bake’in.
“There will always be thousands of unfinished tasks in my to-do list every day, and how I arrange my time to complete each of them is the challenge I have to face every single day,” she shared.
Despite that, she finds prioritising her tasks with an organized schedule and timeline helps her manage them better.
Say hello to your electronic instructor
The goal behind Bake’in is to provide people with a comfortable and well-equipped space to explore and improve their baking prowess.
“Everyone can come here and make themselves at home, chill around, and bake cakes or desserts,” Michelle said.
“It’s our aim to make Bake’in the second home for people who love to bake,” she added.
This might not a useful space for avid but amateur bakers as they would have their own equipment and ingredients at home already.
Bake’in facilitates baking classes through an iPad app developed in-house which provides videos and step-by-step guidance.
Customers can then follow the simple steps to bake a cake from scratch and come out with a beautiful end-product all on their own.
Of course, you can also access baking tutorials yourself at home through step-by-step blog posts and Youtube videos.
One thing you probably won’t find at home, however, would be the Bake’in assistants that are always around to help you out if needed.
Bake’in offers different ranges of iPad workshops from desserts, cupcakes and small cakes to larger cakes with workshop prices of RM150 to RM300 for now.
Baking the stress away
Baking workshops are nothing new and the most common ones are taught by cooking professionals and bakers in-person.
Bake’in aims to deliver a different experience to their customers by allowing them to learn at their own pace without interruption by others.
“I find that a lot of people actually feel intimidated by the idea of baking, or attending workshops with other people around,” Michelle stated.
“Therefore, I wanted to create something very stress-free. Here at Bake’in, you get to bake your desserts or cakes on your own, taking your own sweet time, following your own pace.”
“Or, you can come with friends and have fun as well!” she added.
While baking with friends in your own home is an option, if you find yourself missing like-minded friends, Bake’in could be the place for you to find baking companionship.
An added advantage that keeps the experience enjoyable at Bake’in is the fact that you don’t have to clean up after yourself! You can just bake and go.
Hungry for more
Bake’in plans to open up more outlets in other Malaysian states and even has goals to expand the brand internationally.
In the meantime, it will continue its mission of spreading the concept of “everyone can bake” in hopes of inspiring and helping people to find their passion for baking.
“This market is actually very competitive, and we believe that there will be more studios with similar concepts showing up in the market in the near future,” Michelle said.
“But we also believe this is a healthy competitive market where everyone has their own unique style and design.”
Bake’in may not have much value for home bakers, but as someone who doesn’t have the equipment, ingredients or space to try baking (though I have the friends), I might just try a Bake’in class one of these days.
- Find out more about Bake’in here.
Featured Image Credit: Bake’in
