Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Hajra Khan. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Hajra thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
Like many children, I loved baking with my mother. As I grew up, and later throughout my university studies, making a cake or brownies was how I relaxed during my time off. After finishing law school and working for sometime, I took a break from my legal profession after the birth of my second and third child. As a stay at home mother, I had many opportunities to bake for myself and others and loved trying new techniques and expanding my cake decorating skills. I knew I wanted to return to law once my children had started school, but at the time, I was just enjoying baking up a storm!
While I was having fun baking, it never really occurred to me that I could make a business out of it. One day, my children’s school held a large fundraising event for which I created a variety of beautiful and delicious treats. Most notably, the most popular item I made was what has now become my signature cookie – my Hijabi doll cookies (the hijab is the headcovering worn by Muslim women).Everything sold out in minutes and after the event, I had a few people request to place orders for my cookies. The fact that anyone wanted to order a custom set of cookies – and pay a pretty penny for them too! – opened up a new path of possibilities for me. Did I want to leave behind my career as a lawyer to create custom luxury baked goods? No, but did I want to give it a try and see what it could turn into? Definitely! I knew it was a worthwhile endeavor when I realized that I was able to offer unique goods that really were not being offered in my community; beautifully decorated cookies dressed like Muslim women who wear the hijab, cakes that celebrate the Muslim Eid holidays and month of Ramadan, and my incorporation of traditional South Asian dessert flavors, while using Western decorating techniques. Like any good lawyer, I ensured I had the correct licenses, permits and paperwork, and thus began my custom baking business, Just Us Cupcakes (“Just Us” being a play on the word “justice”). Being able to include cultural and religious diversity in my edible creations is something I take great pride in, and I enjoy offering my clients delicious treats, within which they can see themselves.
My small business has flourished in ways I could have never imagined. Gradually, I re-entered the legal profession, but I knew I could never stop baking altogether! At times it may be challenging to balance both making custom cakes and the other demands of my baking business, as well as serving my legal clients and their needs, but it is also very rewarding.
I love my legal profession and the work involved, and my baking career lets me explore my creative side through bold color palettes, interesting flavor combinations and edible art forms. I make custom cakes, cupcakes, cake pops, decorated cookies and many more delicious, beautiful treats. Having a career both as a practicing lawyer, while running a baking business is truly a dream come true!
Hajra, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I work as an attorney in the areas of immigrant and intellectual property law. I am licensed in jurisdictions both in Canada and the United States, and am a registered patent attorney before the United States Patent and Trademark office. Working in two federal areas of law allows me to work with clients from all over the country. My legal career is very important to me, and I enjoy the work that I do and the people I work with. My baking business lets me explore my creative side and talents and fulfills me in other ways. Both professions present unique challenges and opportunities and I appreciate learning new skills through them. Having a career both as a practicing lawyer, while running a baking business is truly a dream come true!
I make custom cakes, cupcakes, cake pops, decorated cookies and many more delicious, beautiful treats. What sets me apart from other bakers is my love of experimenting with different flavor combinations, edible art forms, bold color palettes, and my embracing of various aspects of the cultural identity of myself and my clients, and incorporating all of these into my custom creations. My clients enjoy the variety of flavors I offer in my items, from mango-lassi, to chocolate-cardamom and everything in between! Some flavors will always be classics like vanilla, chocolate and red velvet, but for others, I’ve always got an adventurous flavor collection many people enjoy. My wide-ranging flavors aren’t just limited to cakes; I also create chai bombs in Kashmiri, masala and cardamom chai flavors, and even bonbons with fillings inspired by traditional South Asian desserts!
My signature style is bold, colorful and vibrant! Popping color palettes are especially important for me in my creations that involve my Muslim faith and its traditions. My signature Hijabi doll cookies always have brightly colored outfits (I always change the style of outfit depending on the client’s request) and represent different races. Similarly, my Ramadan and Eid themed cakes and cookies combine traditional Islamic symbolism with Western cake decorating mediums like buttercream and fondant. My creations are a way for me to express myself, and to provide my clients with beautiful and unique items that celebrate their diversity.
I have been fortunate to have worked with some of the biggest names in the baking industry. I recently was invited by American Cake Decorating Magazine (the #1 cake magazine in North America!) to create a cake celebrating the Muslim holiday of Eid ul-Adha and an accompanying tutorial for their July/August 2022 issue. Seeing my own work published in a magazine I’ve read countless times, admiring other artists’ incredible work, is just a surreal but amazing feeling! I have also collaborated a few times with Wilton Enterprises, the global leader in cake decorating inspiration, instruction and products, in creating cakes for their social media channels and have been a guest writer on their blog posts. These proud moments have shown me how far I’ve come in my baking journey. For me, my baking business isn’t just a business; it’s a way for me to truly collaborate with a client and to turn their dessert vision into a real-life stunning piece of edible art.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson I had to very quickly unlearn was “not to see my prices too high”. I had to reframe the “don’t price too high” mindset into, “price my items for what they are worth”. I have always considered myself a pretty frugal person, so spending a large amount of money on a cake was not something I grew up with.
Creating custom cakes, cookies and other edible creations is creating art you can eat. Each item takes a copious amount of time to make from start to finish, not to mention the premium ingredients used to do so. In the world of custom cakes and desserts, like other industries involving the custom creation of something, whether it is artwork or a vehicle, if you don’t make a healthy profit off of your items, you’ll quickly find yourself engaged in a very expensive hobby – not a business.
It is essential for anyone in this market to understand that pricing a work of custom edible art at the price YOU might pay for something, isn’t necessarily the price you should actually sell your creations for. If someone isn’t willing to recognize and appreciate the time, energy, design process, and skills that went into creating a custom cake or luxe dessert, then that is not the client for you, and that’s ok! Clients sometimes expect a Ferrarri for a Ford price, and as a custom cake artist, part of my job also requires me to educate the client on why items are priced as they are.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Similar to many small businesses, the COVID-19 pandemic certainly required me to think about the different items and services I could provide. For example, pe-pandemic, large tiered cakes were something that were ordered frequently. However, due to restrictions on holding events, and later on, the limitations on gathering sizes, my client’s needs changed. They no longer wanted large spreads of desserts with a large cake at the center, but rather, a more personalized way to share sweet treats with family and friends celebrating a special event. This is when I started offering individual and family sized treat boxes. My clients could choose what they wanted in their treat boxes, such as cookies, cake pops and other small items, and match the color scheme and decor to theme of their event. They may not have been able to have a large gathering, but they could drive around to their friends’ homes and drop off the treat boxes. These treat boxes became really popular and even though we are able to have gatherings once again, clients still order them to share with guests in the form of party favors at their events.
Contact Info:
- Website: justuscupcakes.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/justuscupcakes
- Facebook: facebook.com/justuscupcakes
- Other: email: hajra@justuscupcakes.com
Image Credits
Hajra Khan