Birthday cake by home baker- COCOMOM cakes

My 21st birthday was not something I was looking forward to. The mere mention of ’21’ sends me in a panic mode. Even after a week later, I seem to be struggling to come on terms with it.

However, there were some good things that happened to me when I turned 21. One of them being my birthday cake. My birthday cake this year was sponsored by COCOMOM Cakes. COCOMOM cakes is one of the many home bakers that have cropped up in Chandigarh in recent times.

When I first received a call from them, the condition was to order a cake by the 12. But since my birthday falls on 13th, they were kind enough to accommodate my request to deliver it a day later.

Then began all the discussions- what flavor do I want? What color should it be? How should it look like? And I was flustered. At that moment I thought, “This is too much for me to decide for a day I am not even looking forward to.” But home baker Asheena Batra was kind enough to discuss everything with me at length.

Asheena is a former dentist turned full time baker and is also a mother of two and an Art of Living teacher. The best part about working with her is that she is so passionate and committed to her craft, that the whole experience was like a cakewalk! (Pun intended)

We finally zero in on Salted Caramel flavor. It is something I haven’t tried before. But I decide I might as well experiment this time round, instead of sticking to usual chocolates and strawberries. Still there is a lot to decide. The design remains a huge contention. But I know I do not want a fondant based cake. It is too sugary for my liking.

But this talented home baker has a solution for that too! And Asheena bombards me with multiple buttercream based designs. Finally, I find something I adore but there’s also the question of color. Overwhelmed by all of it, I leave the decision to Asheena- whatever she thinks will look the prettiest is fine by me. Surprise me, I tell her.

A week later, I am 21, sitting with my friends and waiting for the cake to arrive. And when it does, it takes my breath away because it looks like this (!!!) –

First impressions- everybody is going ohhh and ahhh looking at this perfectly made cake. It isn’t something over the top but its beauty lies in its simplicity.

But that is not all. As soon as we bite into the cake after the mandatory cake cutting, we are all taken aback. The cake is neither too sweet nor too not sweet (??). What I mean to say is that it is perfectly balanced. The cream is freshly made and you can actually sense that. As for the flavor, the salted caramel really comes through and coats your palette. The salt is so finely balanced in the backdrop of everything sweet that we all keep going back for seconds and thirds!

This, by far, has to be one of the best birthday cakes I have had. The fact that makes it all the more special is that it is made by one really talented home baker- Asheena Batra.

You can get in touch with her via her Facebook page- https://www.facebook.com/cocomom.cakes/

-Mrinaal Datt

You can read more about her here.