My story.

Before Sweet Perfections.

Since 2010, I have always been into baking, though I have to admit it wasn’t my strong point. Especially the decorating. As time went on, I started decorating cakes with my family, including the time my family member had a baking competition between the teachers in their school (he obviously cheated and played no part in making the cake). 

From then onwards, I started making cakes for my friends’ birthdays. Any excuse to make a cake, I was on it. Eventually, I moved onto making cookies and brownies too - completely different to what they are now. 

Then the pandemic hit, which drove my passion for baking even more. Every day I was up trying new recipes, doing lots of research and creating my own recipes and perfecting them. As you can imagine, I had a lot of free time as I couldn’t work my part time job during some parts of the pandemic. My A Levels also got cancelled so I had 6 months to spare without academic studying.

The Opening.

At 18, in April 2020, I literally just woke up one day (not an exaggeration) and decided to put all my recipes to use and start a bakery business - had never thought about it before, it was just a spur of the moment with no experience. A huge risk but I was ready for it.

The search for the name began, with me and my family shouting out the most random silly names, we eventually decided on Sweet Perfections. I created my own logo and as you can imagine, with no branding experience at 18, it was horrible. Eventually, after rebranding 3 times, I designed a logo I fell in love with, which is the logo you see today.

The first month of business was so quiet. Barely any orders. My Instagram page barely reached any accounts and I was so close to giving it all up. As the pandemic passed, I was then back to part time working 4 days a week and also a Uni student, along with managing my business. It was a struggle as it just meant sleepless nights, trying to balance everything, especially as 1 part time job quickly turned into 2.

Feeling so strongly about my business, I did not want to give it up, but I knew things had to pick up. I advertised my business more, word of mouth was my biggest advertiser and eventually I was baking every day, constantly introducing new things to my page too, with my family being taste testers and giving me new ideas every time. Of course, my brother has to be the biggest taste tester, always wanting to eat everything I bake including customer orders.

Sweet Perfections Now

Wanting to introduce a completely new product to my business, I decided on dessert and cheesecake shots. Inspired by my mum and family members, who usually make these for parties at home, realising soon enough, my mum should become a permanent part of the business and there was no better person to make these than her (they are scrumptious by the way). My mum played a key role in helping me start my business, she kept me going when things got tough and had many sleepless nights from it too. She helped me progress further and further and to the point where I was ready to run the business myself in 2021.

After about 1000 mental breakdowns from the quick growth of my business and getting used to running it, I soldiered on and have got to where I am today. 2023 - my year full of achievements. 

In 2023, as a graduate, I decided to quit my jobs and focus solely on my business. The growth was constant and baking kept me more than busy. I participated in so many stalls including a pop up at Stratford Westfield and the World Halal Food Festival (with the help of my sister who has been to every single one of my stalls with me and the support of my best friend). I also entered the wedding cake market (with the help of my dad becoming my partial Uber driver) which was successful and I had the opportunity to set up the perfect cakes for many of my customers’ big days.

I know it’s very cliché to say but I’m so thankful for my family and friends who helped me and pushed me to get to where I am today.

And that’s the story of how Sweet Perfections, at 22, is where it is today. An individual business owner with a full time job along with my home bakery. Now onto 2024.