As a kid, Shasha always had a feeling that she’d become an entrepreneur someday. Her family had a franchise store of BATA, the Swiss footwear brand, and she joined the venture very young.
When other five-year-olds were out causing harmless mischief, Shasha was helping out at the store. She’d assist customers who walked in asking for specific shoe sizes and the like.
So when she was lost after her other career opportunities didn’t pan out the way she hoped for, she made the jump to start Summer Break Cafe.
“My soul is in business,” Shasha professed during our call.
I’ve heard other entrepreneurs share similar sentiments, but she said it with such conviction that I didn’t doubt her once. The more I learnt about her story, the more I understood where her confidence came from.
You see, despite being only 32 years old, Shasha has dipped her toes in various industries. From nursing to aviation, to human resource management and property, she’s picked up plenty of skills along the way.
But she could feel that entrepreneurship was in her blood, and she’s proving it with Summer Break Cafe, a bakery that’s making sourdoughs popular in Seremban.
Bouncing back from her struggles
At the time, she had been suffering from depression for two years. “[It was] very bad because I had commitments,” she shared and explained that her children were still very young.
Her previous PPE business wasn’t doing very well when the threat of COVID-19 eased up. We all know how bad the job market was back then too, which led to her income being stagnant.
Then along her road to mental recovery, she found a love for baking.
With her savings depleting, she decided to get some baking supplies and began making bagel sandwiches to sell. “I knew I had to take this [business] seriously,” she said, if not for herself then for her kids.
That’s how Summer Break Cafe was founded in 2022.
Shasha pushed herself to bake and sell as much as possible, with TikTok being her main “marketplace”. She’d create videos of her baking and assembling the bagels into sandwiches. Slowly, but surely, some of her videos would pop off and garner six-digit views.
This encouraged her to expand her offerings, leading to the introduction of Summer Bake Cafe’s star product—sourdoughs.
She’s still rising to the occasion
If you’re a baker, you’ll probably know that sourdoughs aren’t the easiest to make, especially if you’re making the starters from scratch.
For context, a sourdough starter is a leavening agent that uses naturally occurring yeasts and bacteria to make baked goods rise. The ingredients themselves are simple enough: flour and water. What makes it complex is the diligence in measuring and consistency.
But Shasha wasn’t deterred by any of this. “I like the challenge, the challenge makes me think a lot about the bread. How can it be fermented? The bread is sour, so I need to find out why it tastes like that,” she said.
A solid nine months was taken to breed her sourdough starter, including trials and errors along the way.
To raise more awareness about this new product, Shasha combined the business with her nursing knowledge. She’d create video content educating the public about the health benefits of sourdough loaves.
For example, it’s richer in nutrients, contains lower amounts of gluten, and is less likely to spike your blood sugar. The latter makes it a great alternative for diabetic patients who crave bread, who represent some of her customers now.
For the love of bread
While bagels set the foundation of Summer Bake Cafe, it was Shasha’s sourdoughs that propelled the business forward.
In fact, her sourdoughs always sell out at the end of each day, with 32 loaves being her highest record so far. That’s quite a feat for a full-time team of three, with six part-time helpers.
This doesn’t include the other offerings on her menu. On good days, they can sell over 300 freshly baked goods ranging from Vietnamese banh mi to focaccia, and even baguettes.
Back then, she only sold them online where customers could either pick up or have orders delivered. But since April this year, they’ve set up a permanent stall in Seremban at Picnic House.
From Fridays to Sundays, Shasha’s team will split up. Some of them manage their stall at the weekly Cyberjaya pop-up event called Lorong Belakang. Corporate workers make up the bulk of their Cyberjaya consumers, which isn’t too surprising.
What caught Shasha off-guard was how receptive the older crowds in Seremban were to her baked goods. You see, bagels and sourdoughs might be very popular in the Klang Valley but it’s quite uncommon in other states.
So it’s interesting to see the older generation taking a keen interest in them, especially knowing how difficult it can be to introduce new tastes to your palate with age.
It’s definitely dough-able
With the two-year-old business steadily growing, Shasha intends to expand their reach as far and wide as possible.
They’ve already begun searching for business partners to open franchises in different locations. With the breads baked fresh daily, Shasha shared that they’ll start by shipping the products daily to partners.
There are some concerns over maintaining the food’s quality, but she’s confident that this is the right move forward. “I’ll personally have to talk with food tech. I’ll make sure the taste [difference] isn’t very large,” Shasha said.
Summer Bake Cafe will be opening its first outlet in Melaka and KL soon. The brand’s cloud kitchen bakery in Seremban will also be available for walk-in customers not long from now.
But looking at the bigger picture, Shasha’s goal isn’t just to establish her business in other parts of Malaysia. It’s about bringing happiness to others with her sourdough creations.
“I met a cancer patient once who had a craving for bread, and because of sourdough, she can still continue to eat bread. [So] I hope my sourdoughs can bring more happiness in that way.”
- Learn more about Summer Break Cafe here.
- Read other articles we’ve written about Malaysian startups here.
Featured Image Credit: Summer Break Cafe
