Meet Malaysia’s upcoming homegrown baker, Michelle Young!
She is the brains behind Bakes & Inks, an online local cake store that caters to everyone’s sweet tooth. Her elegant cake designs and calligraphy art will mesmerize you.
Hello Michelle! Tell us more about yourself!
I am a food scientist turned baker who has a great passion towards baking since I was young. I graduated from Bachelor of Food Science and Nutrition course but decided to pursue my passion in baking instead because I believe that it’s important to love what you’re doing. I’m actually a HUGE dessert (especially CHOCOLATES) lover so I’ve been hopping cafes around town very often during my university days to try out different foods and desserts and seek for inspiration for my dessert making. That’s the time where I developed interest in food photography. I guess it’s because I like to make all things look beautiful so i want to share beautiful pictures of food as well. I am so happy to meet a bunch of awesome people who share the same interest in me and we often hop cafes together and exchange our ideas/opinions of food photography together too! And I’m also kind of a crafty person I love all things DIY ? I used to make lots of handmade cards to my family, friends (and also boyfriend :p) so when I discovered a calligraphy workshop, I knew that’s the place that I must go!! So glad that I went to learn calligraphy and now I can write beautiful words on cards for birthdays, weddings and many more!
What do you do full time?
Now I’m a full time baker of Bakes & Inks ?
Tell us your journey as a baker! When did you first discover your passion for calligraphy and baking?
I’ve started baking since I was really young, at around 8 or 9 years old. I’ve developed this hobby; all thanks to my parents. Both my parents love to bake as well! My dad is very into bread baking while my mom loves to bake cakes and cookies. So I learned a lot of techniques and methods from both of them. My dad always insist to bake breads for us despite his busy working schedule and didn’t allow us to buy breads from the store outside. Because he thought that those softener & bread improver are very unhealthy and the ones he made are all using premium and healthy ingredients only ? Ever since I’ve graduated from my degree, I took a part time pastry course to brush up my skills as all these while I’m only learning at home or from the internet. And slowly I started posting the bakes that I made and also my calligraphy art on Instagram which is also known as Bakes & Inks. In the beginning I only take it as a place to share the things I love to create like my bakes or my calligraphy art. But somehow I’ve received overwhelming responses and people actually starting to order my bakes from me! I feel so overwhelmed by this and I feel really really thankful.
Give us some tips on how to nail the perfect cake!
The tips to nail a perfect cake? Its gotta be just 1 word, PATIENCE! You seriously need a lot of patience to make a perfect cake in terms of the measuring part, mixing part, baking part, frosting and even decorating. Each step is very crucial and need to be done very precisely in order to produce a nice cake.
We all know calligraphy isn’t the easiest hobby! Share with us the most basic tip in calligraphy art.
Calligraphy is really a fun hobby and all you need is keep on practicing. After the workshop I’ve attended, I’ve been practising at home EVERYDAY. I also follow a lot of calligrapher from Instagram and try to re-create different writing style from them too.
Any upcoming projects?
I’ve an upcoming project with Black Milk Project which is their Pendidikan Seni Ceramah & Pendidikan Seni session! I’ll be giving speech and doing demonstration on how to decorate cake beautifully with fresh flowers ?
What is a typical day in your life?
Typical day of my life? Eat. Bake. Sleep. Repeat.
Do you have any idols?
I don’t really have an idol, but I watch Bubzvlogs very often because I really love her bubbly and always cheerful character!
Any life mottos?
My life motto: DO IT WITH PASSION OR NOT AT ALL.
Who is your all time inspiration in life?
Michelle Phan has always been my inspiration (not because we share the same name :p) but because she always inspire people to chase their dreams, go after what they really want, and never give up. She’s the one who made me realize that “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life”.
What is the ideal weekend for you?
My ideal weekend? Although I enjoy baking and make nice desserts, I also appreciate a non-baking day once in awhile and just spending quiet and quality time with my family and boyfriend.
Tell us what makes you smile the most? ☺
When customers love my bakes and creations that makes me smile a lot!
Where do you see yourself in 2 years’ time?
In two years time I hope I am happily married (HAHAHA), own a shop, and have a baking team and create more baking lines under Bakes & Inks!
We certainly can’t wait to see more of Bakes & Inks!
