Rabina Shivraj:
Put to task at the age of just ten to help to create the family’s Christmas cake propelled Rabina Shivraj into a world of baking and decoration and today she has learnt the art of hooking her customers, first with her creativity and secondly with the taste of her creations.
The first time caught up with Rabina, she was seated upfront at this year’s Miss World Guyana coronation having won herself a ticket. During a conversation, we learnt of her profession. And not being one to just talk about what she does, she quickly followed up this with some photographic evidence of her work.
Although it’s only been two years since she turned her talent into business, Rabina has been doing cakes for interested persons for five years now. However, she also has almost two decades of practical experience of cake baking and has been helping out in the family kitchen ever since.
“I was around ten years old when my mom first asked me to help her bake a cake for Christmas. She gave me little instructions on what to do and when to do it,” Rabina said of her first cake-making experience.
Baking, she shared, has always been a part of her life. Growing up, Rabina had grown accustomed to the aroma of cakes and other goodies emanating from the kitchen and was always excited about the day she’d finally be allowed to bake or cook something. Her mother, she revealed, was a caterer and was always in the kitchen cooking up something. Being the only girl of the family’s two children, her mother expected her to learn the art and there came a time when Rabina no longer mixed ingredients but was allowed to put the pan in the hot oven.
“I remember one time she told me to put the cake in the oven, I was so excited that I turned the heat up so it could finish fast but instead it burnt. Baking with my mom was one of my greatest learning experiences, which also created a bond between us… My mom provided me with the motivation and the love for baking and now with every cake I make I use that same motivation and love added with enthusiasm to create superb masterpieces for my customers,” said Rabina.
According to the cake decorator, back then she knew nothing about icing cakes as that was not one of the things her mother did. She admits that her first