We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Savitha Ganesan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Savitha , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Basically I am a foodie . Would love to try new recipes . I cook,  lot of dishes at home . I love to explore new avenues. When I came to this country , as an immigrant,  I was so fascinated to see  the oven, in my apartment. I started playing it  , with new recipes. I  started to read , lot of articles, about baking . When we see our hard work  puffing up inside the oven, it feels so good. It gives us some kind of satisfaction. My friend and I baked a cake and decorated with store bought “cool whip” , for my husband’s birthday in 2009 . That was the first time I baked a cake . It was a pretty decent cake. Seeing the happiness in our loved one’s face, inspired me  to take this profession seriously . From then, I started baking for my family and friends.

In 2013, I got my first official order, for a cake in Texas . I still remember that order . It was a small basket weave design with a monkey and balloon toppers. Got very good feedback for the cake. That feeling when you wait,  till you get the feedback from the client is wonderful.

I moved to a different state and at last settled here in Charlotte. NC. In between, I used to learn a lot about cake decorating and baking. I used to participate in competitions and challenges. I got a participation certificate for my “Taj Mahal” shaped cake in NC – State fair ( Cake decoration competition in Raleigh ) . After coming to Charlotte, I started doing cakes for my friends , and  they started recommending to their friends. Slowly my business started to flourish . And now I am pretty happy and contend with my business “Savi Bakes”

Basically cake decorating business is a very successful business, when we plan it efficiently . The place where I live has a demand for customized cakes and eggless baking. Because , a good percentage of people here, search for eggless options. I do both egg based cakes and eggless .I emphasize on the quality and taste. Taste is one aspect which people can never forget. They can forget the design you made for them , but not the taste. This makes them visit us again and again. I have clients who travels from another city ( around 1 hour) to get the cake from me every year. They are my assets. I owe them a lot.

The logic or unique approach in my business are quality of ingredients I choose , detailing of the cake and freshness of the products I use. I do not use margarine or any artificial products in my cakes, Everything is made from scratch . I never take too many orders every week. As I want to focus on detailing. I give importance to quality than quantity. I feel this is unique approach in my business.

Another unique technique I follow or unique idea I adhere in my business is, I take every feedback seriously. I have read in an article , the founder of “Instant pot” used to read all the comments/problems in  their website under their products . And try to fix those problems. Same way , I take all my criticisms, feedbacks in a constructive way and try to fix it . Also I try to learn new trends and implement in my business. I feel these are main reasons, for my success.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am basically from India and settled here in US . I hold a masters degree in Computer Applications . I am married to an Engineer. He is my backbone and pillar of support. I have two boys doing their schooling . Both my boys are very cooperative with me, to follow my dream . I am basically an art lover. Be it music, dance, drama or craft, I love doing it. Also I am a very happy person. I learnt Indian classical dance in my elementary school. And started participating in school Cultural programs..

I come from a family ,where I was given full freedom to think and choose. Our parents never forced anything on us. They gave us complete freedom of choices . These things made me an independent person. I chose art as my passion and they supported it. I am thankful to my parents.

I used to make clay dolls ( toys) using the mud which we used to get in play ground near our home ,back in India. I used to make the toys and dry them under the sun . Its basically homemade playdough toys . I still remember those little pots, pans, cups of clay, which we used to play with them . My neighborhood friends used to build buildings in cardstock paper and make them look real . We used to decorate the buildings with color papers .These are our favorite activities ,back in 1990’s ,where there were no phones. We used to cook food in our tiny little pans in wood fire and serve them for our friends. These things inspired me a lot  and made me an artist .
I get bored easily , if I do something repetitively . Basically I don’ t like to do a 9 to 5 job . I always will be in a quest to do something new and interesting.
When I came to US after marriage,I was bored initially . So I started a cooking blog, where I will be posting my cooking recipes. Blogging made me to explore the baking world. I started baking in 2009. Which will be basic cakes, cookies, breads and desserts. I started enjoying the process. Slowly I got to know about cake decorating in 2010. Back then, I used to spend my time in libraries reading books on baking techniques and recipes. I used to try out new recipes at home and curate them. Slowly I started understanding the nuances in baking.

One of my friend introduced me to ” Wilton Cake decorating ” classes in Texas. I took basic decorating class there. And then started exploring the decorating techniques on my own from “You tube” . I started decorating cakes for my family and friends. Slowly by word of mouth , my business started expanding and now I am pretty happy and proud about, how my brain child “Savi Bakes “has grown into a family of 25k followers.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

We face lot of challenges ,everyday for every order. Since we are in hospitality industry, we cannot show our frustrations, failures or emotions to our clients. Whenever we fall. we get up . dust it out and face another new day with a smile. Out of all the challenges, two are very challenging and scary incidents ,where my resilience was tested. One was 5 years back, I made a two tier cake and the client was about to pick the cake in an hour. While taking pictures. the backdrop board ,which was heavy, fell on the cake and the topper fell down. The top tier was smudged completely. I froze for a minute and started crying . After sometime, with a clear mind, I started thinking what next? . Luckily I had leftover buttercream. So I took off the top tier and frosted with new buttercream and set it in the refrigerator , while it was chilling in the refrigerator, did the fondant decoration in another 15 mins. When I finally , finished  the cake, it was perfect without any flaws. The client arrived, just in time. She took the  cake happily. Thankfully all went well . .

Another incident , it was a round – ball of yarn cake. It had heavy fondant work. Unfortunately, I didn’t dowel it to the board. The cake rolled out of the board and collapsed completely. I had no choice ,but to re- bake the cake. which I did . I baked the cake, frosted and decorated with fondant thread, Usually it will take more hours to finish. But under pressure I finished in 4 hours straight, through the night. I had very little sleep that night.
These things has made me strong. Now I have made up my mind, “I have seen the worst “, so nothing can shake me . This profession has taught me to be resilient. There are other instances, where I may get my hand injured, still have to work with a bandage or a medicine. I make sure that I fulfill my client’s wish . Also I have got very few baking buddies who were there with me throughout my tough times. I take this moment to thank them all, for being with me virtually and supporting me.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media is a very good place to showcase your business and to grow your clientele . In my experience, we have to engage our audience frequently. Either by a post, reel or picture . This will make sure your followers get to see your update frequently. I make sure I post my pictures bi- weekly or 3 times a week. In between , I also share reels . Make sure ,  you post reels or videos of how you made that cake. People will be more interested in the process than on the final outcome. So I create short reels about the process. Like a small tutorial of the technique , Or how I got the shape of the cake etc. These posts will fetch you very good audience compared to regular posts.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.savibakes.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/savibakes?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/savibakes2018

Image Credits
Picture credit goes to my clients who provided these pictures.