Mumbai women set to host bake-a-thon in Goa

Five city women are set to host 120 home bakers and 16 professional demonstrators for a bake-a-thon in Goa

BACON 2015, which was also held in Goa, was the first convention of its kind to be organised in India 

It's A warm Sunday afternoon, and five women, who’ve gathered at the cosy little pink studio at Versova, are expected to go live on Facebook. They are already late for the live chat, they inform, while munching on the cupcakes and pastries they’ve brought for the occasion. When they do go online sometime later, the giggling company gets down to business. “Hello, bakers,” they collectively say into the camera of the mobile phone. “We can’t wait to see you.”

Barely a week from now, the five-women team, will host 120 others of their ilk at BACON 2016 — a first of its kind convention for bakers, which is just one season old.

Gina-Maya Iyer (extreme left) and Priyanka Arora Nayak (extreme right), the brains behind BACON, roped in home bakers Liz Pius (second, from left), Vishaka Rautela (centre) and Mitali Lalwani after they volunteered to help make the project a reality. Pic/Sneha Kharabe

With 16 baking experts and demonstrators leading the three-day event, scheduled to begin on September 22, the convention has already doubled in scale and size. “We just had eight experts last year,” says 30-year-old Priyanka Arora Nayak, who runs the Polka Dots Cakes Academy in Andheri. The icing on the cake is that the convention will be held in Goa. Helming the show are the five women, who are now entertaining last-minute queries from participants in a video chat on Facebook.

“It all started over a random discussion at lunch with Priyanka in March last year,” says Gina-Maya Iyer (44), a home baker who launched her own label, Gina’s Kitchen seven years ago. “Priyanka told me about this group of bakers, who were meeting up on a cruise for a fun getaway. I told her, ‘let’s do it, too’,” recalls Gina-Maya. The sprightly mother of two remembers going back home and posting the news on a few baking groups on social media. “Within minutes, we had hundreds of people giving our plan a thumbs up,” says Gina-Maya.

The widespread interest the getaway for home bakers generated, however, meant the need to create something more constructive, says Priyanka, a professional baker, who tutors in several cities in India. And that’s how the plan for the first BACON took shape.

The other three members, Vishaka Rautela, Liz Pius and Mitali Lalwani, all accomplished home bakers, came on board after Priyanka and Gina-Maya called for volunteers to help make the convention a reality. While Vishaka and Gina-Maya helped create the social media buzz, Priyanka took on the task of roping in experts. Liz handled the logistics, and Mitali, an IT professional, took care of the finances. Since it was a non-sponsored event, the task of making it work, got a lot tougher. “But, our support team was amazing. It’s as if this convention, always had the blessings of the cake gods,” says Priyanka.

After their successful launch last year, the team once again came together this year, and this time, there are participants coming in from all over India, and as far as the UAE and the Sultanate of Oman.

While more demonstrators have agreed to join the programme, what’s new on the block are six master-classes, which will be held at the Zuri White Sands Resort and Casino. “Selected masters will hold classes for a smaller bunch of participants, who will have to register for the sessions separately. At each class, they will be taught different techniques related to baking,” says 41-year-old Vishaka, a home caterer and food blogger, who goes by the name, Vishual Foodie.

Liz (38), whose homegrown label Lovingly Liz, took flight after the experience that she gained at the convention, says, “I was very new to the home-baking industry when I attended the first convention. But, being exposed to like-minded people and sharing ideas on how to go about our businesses gave me a boost.” Mitali (38), who will be holding a demonstration on guilt-free baking at the convention, adds, “Home baking in India is still nascent and although we are a very competitive industry, we don’t bake to make profits as much as we do it for the sheer love of it. What I realised after participating in the first convention is that we are still reliant on each other, when it comes to learning, so this platform works perfectly for us.”

Starting the convention is one thing, keeping it afloat is another, admits Gina-Maya. “It’s like a growing child, who has to achieve better with every given year. I doubt I have put so much pressure on my own kids.”

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