Who doesn’t enjoy a delicious piece of cake? But when it is essentially a work of art that you are biting into, that’s taking it to a whole new level of pure dessert joy.
Roshina Fernandes is a home baker with artistic abilities that set her apart from the regular crop of cake makers.
Coupled with her penchant for art and the drive to transform her ideas and designs into reality, she has created masterpieces which one can admire as one would a Van Gogh or a Picasso, only hers are delicious as well.
On a side note, if you are hankering for an edible Van Gogh or Picasso, Roshina will probably be able to make it happen for you.
Fascinated and intrigued by cake decorating shows, Roshina, not one to be a passive consumer of entertainment, began experimenting in her own kitchen. This eventually led to her baking and designing elaborate cakes for family first, later moving on to delighting friends as well.
OVEN LOVIN' JOURNEY
Her work was clearly exceptional, which caused her friends to encourage her to convert her passion and hobby into a business venture called Oven Lovin’.
Roshina says of her foray into the world of baking and cake decorating, “With a background in business and commerce, baking was never really on the cards. So, I’m primarily self-taught. I upgraded my skills with a few cake decorating courses and, of course, use the internet to keep updated with latest trends and creative designs.”
A homemaker and mother in addition to her cake decorating endeavour, it’s a finely tuned balancing act and great time management skills that keep Oven Lovin’s wheels moving smoothly for Roshina.
“Since I run the business by myself, I need to attend to all the other aspects of the business too,” says the mother who places time with her children as her priority.
With each design being different and of different levels of difficulty, she explains that what she assumes could take 2 hours, could end up actually taking 6 hours to execute.
Roshina elaborates, “Right from baking to designing a simple design could take about a couple of hours. While an intricate design that requires detailed work could vary from 4 to even 14 hours from baking to final set up, since I do everything by myself.”
CUSTOMER'S CHOICE
Before beginning the cake making process, a discussion about customer requirements is necessary. For Roshina, most of these take place digitally, which is convenient for both parties and helps to document all requests and briefs.
In the case of wedding cakes and cakes requiring more complicated crafting, Roshina makes an exception. “I prefer to have a one-on-one discussion, especially for wedding cakes or any other elaborate cakes that involves intricate designing, just because of how nuanced some designs are."
"Also, it always helps to take note of every detail and brief given by the client in terms of the colour theme and designing. After all, it is the most important day of their lives,” she continues.
Most of the wedding cakes she has dealt with have been decidedly challenging, especially the 5-tiered wedding cakes with intricate flower arrangements.
FROM CHALLENGE TO SUCCESSFUL FRUITION
But sculpted cakes in particular take the cake when defining “challenging”.
One of her more recent ones was a realistic snake cake, made for a snake whisperer, which required complex carving to mimic the coiling of a snake. Another example is the lion topper on a cake, moulded from fondant. Sculpting its face to resemble a lion was an arduous task.
With a fixed cake menu that customers get to choose from, the hot favourites are chocolate, Belgian chocolate, chocolate-orange, red velvet and salted caramel.
She further says, “A topsy-turvy cake is pretty elaborate and nerve-racking when the cake tiers have to be set up at an angle on top of each other. Similarly sculpted cakes like cars and helmets, etc, require a lot of attention to detail to nail the designing as accurately as possible.”
With a fixed cake menu that customers get to choose from, the hot favourites are chocolate, Belgian chocolate, chocolate-orange, red velvet and salted caramel.
As baker who loves the process of creating a delicious work of art, Roshina says, “I’m proud of every cake that leaves my kitchen. I inherently believe that many small perfect details lend to the final perfect creation! Besides being exceptionally tasty, a cake also has to be visually appealing.”
Dealing mostly with customised cakes that have personalised elements, Roshina says, “I love clients that constantly challenge my creativity.”
While adding personalised elements makes it more special to the customers celebrating their special day, the space you have to showcase these elements is limited and one needs to know when to hold back. “There is only so much that can be held together on a cake!” she declares.
There are times customers have requested complicated gravity-defying designs, or wanted to replicate designs generated by AI.
Roshina laughs as she recalls, “A couple of years back, I remember a client requesting a cake that had to depict a girl climbing a ladder that was meant to lean against a lamp post...and her hair had to seem like she had been electrocuted.”
“I did end up challenging myself, and I made it. It held together pretty well,” she says in conclusion.
You can contact Oven Lovin’ at 9823287343/ovenlovingoa@gmail.com or DM @_oven_lovin_ on Instagram and @Oven Lovin' on Facebook.