Celebrating Amari Bakers & Bakerettes

This has been an amazing year for Amari so far and a large part of that is because of our baking class students as well as our workshop attendees.

That’s why I will share what we’ve been up to with some of our students and share their amazing baking work after they learned how to bake with us for the first quarter of 2016 (January to April). Long post alert ^_^ – totally worth it though!

Our major training project for January was a small bakery business start-up in Ruai called Fair to Good Bakery. I got to train the wonderful staff of the small bakery and they were able to start-up a small bakery that bakes cakes and cupcakes.

There was also an external group training in Thika funded by Circle4Life Foundation. I was honored to train the attendees on how to bake bread & cakes using a Cookswell Charcoal oven. These skills were to help them start an income generating activity to support their lives.

We also had a student in January who took the Basic Bread making & pastries short course. Bakerette Mariam commuted from Naivasha everyday for 3 sessions to take this course.

She’s now baking scones & pastries for her small hotel based in Naivasha.

In February, we were quite busy. We had an amazing set of bakerettes in our Basic Cake making short course where they learned how to bake cakes and decorate them.

It was such an honor getting to teach these lovely and fun ladies. They came from different areas. Anne from Ngong town, Lydia would travel from Thika every Friday to come join us, Emily from Kahawa West and Jane from Kikuyu town. They are still practicing their baking to date and three of them have started small home-based baking businesses.

You can order from Bakerette Anne Njoki: her number is 0725864863 or email: njokianne15@gmail.com. She’s based in Ngong town & she offers delivery in Nairobi.

Bakerette Jane Macharia can be reached on: 0722235552; based in Kikuyu town.

Bakerette Lydia Kemunto is now based in Kisii and can take orders on: 0711870556

We also had a student by the name of Meena in February who took our Intermediate Cake Making & decoration course. She knew the basics of baking but wanted to increase her knowledge and be a better baker.

She truly learned and continues to practice her baking at home for her family & family functions.

She also has a food & baking blog called Tingle-Ure-Tastebuds – please visit & follow it.

We also had another Student Anne who also took the Basic Cake Making & Decoration baking class in February. Anne is a student taking a course in the hotel industry & required a short course to help her specialize in cake making & decoration. She’s based in Kibera. Anne was a wonderful student with a hunger to learn.

We also had a customized 3 session baking class for a lovely student called Grace who wanted to learn how to bake using a Cookswell charcoal oven. She learned how to bake & decorate cakes, as well as how to bake bread & scones. She has now started a home-based bakery in Jamuhuri Estate.

We also held our book launch and business workshop in February where we had many bakerettes from different parts of Nairobi – including some of our former students attend. We launched the book “How to Startup a Small Bakery Business Successfully” and had business guest speakers who gave insightful advice. We had a blast!

In March, we had another set of students for our Friday Basic Cake Making and Decoration short course. They were lovely ladies who were very eager to learn how to bake & decorate cakes. Student Rose & Sheila commuted all the way from Eastlands. Student Rachael is based in Kawangware and Student Gladys came every Friday all the way from Kerugoya.

Bakerettes Rose, Rachael & Sheila are now baking at home for their families. Bakerette Gladys is baking for business in Kerugoya in her small hotel.

We also had a Basic Bread making and Pastries class in March as well on Fridays. We had two students: Student Andrew from Kawangware who had just completed High School and was looking to learn a skill that will help him start an income generating baking business. We also had Student Anne who was a return customer learning how to bake breads & pastries. They were both great students who are now baking for business.

We also had a student from Thika called Joyce who joined our Intermediate Cake Making & Decoration Course. She was perfecting her baking skills in order to start a small bakery shop in Thika.

Mariam was also one of our students who took a weekday Basic Cake Making & decoration class. She learned how to bake & decorate cakes – she was quite a fast learner! ^_^

She’s been baking at home and is setting up to start a small baking business soon.

In April some of our students who took the Basic Cake Making & Decoration short course came on Saturday; student Hellen from Ndwaru road (our neighbour ^_^) and student Sylvia from Satellite, Riruta. They both wanted to learn how to bake for their families at home and to be able to decorate birthday cakes for their family members.

Another student who joined our weekday Basic Cake Making short course was Pauline. She learned ho w to bake & decorate cakes and continued practicing after her class.

Bakerette Pauline has now started a small home baking side business, she’s based in Uthiru.

We had another external training in April in Kitale with a lovely group of young ladies from Esther Home – a rescue home for young mothers. I was hosted by a lovely bakerette named Pauline Mwangi who runs the home with her husband.

Pauline is also an expert baker in her own right and has started a bakery shop in Kitale town. If you’re in Kitale and want some cake, let me know and I’ll give you her contact.

The young ladies learned how to bake and decorate cakes in order to learn a skill that will empower them to be able to start income generating activities.

We also held a Bakery Business Masterclass in April and the topic of discussion on that day was how to cost and price your products among other important topics.

Click on this link to get more information on what was covered. It was a very insightful session with special guest Grace Wanjama, Owner of Cakes.co.ke.

All of us at Amari have had a wonderful first quarter in 2016 and we know it’s just going to get even more exciting as we continue. We’re grateful to all our fans, students and supporters. Thanks for staying connected and following us in this wonderful baking journey. It’s truly an honor and we’ll make sure to keep posting more about baking and all about the business of baking as well!

Stay tuned and be blessed! Share this post and make a baker or bakerette happy ^_^

If you would like to join any of our baking classes, you can call/text: 0701796688 to get more information and/or schedule a visit to our bakery workshop. You can also email: amaribreads@gmail.com. Click on this link to see upcoming class dates.

If you would like to sign up for classes at a later date, sign up via email at this link and we’ll send you updates of all our upcoming classes.