Teacher Amina Khan

Amina Khan has been putting her exceptional touches on cakes for a little over two years. The Business/ Integrated Science/Social Studies teacher said it was her passion for cake-making and decorating that led to her opening her own business although her distinct touches to cakes began years ago with her mother in their kitchen.

“Baking is both hot and hard work,” Amina said. “But at the end I can just stand back and admire my work. I know what I want my finished product to look like and before it’s done I’m anxious as to if it’ll come out as it should. But it has always, since I began doing this, brought a lot of satisfaction.”

That satisfaction increases when she sees her customers beaming as they receive their cakes.

Growing up, Amina followed her mother around the kitchen soaking everything in. She helped mixing butter and sugar and beating eggs. As she got older, she would help out more. Her mother, she said, was her biggest inspiration. Her mother took cake decorating classes, but only created cakes for personal use. There was always a pretty cake at their house for whatever the occasion was.

The first time Amina baked a cake by herself was at West Demerara Secondary School, while she was a student there. She was a second former and it was a group assignment. However, having seen her mother bake dozens of times before, she told her friends that she knew to bake. So, they mixed the ingredients and whisked the eggs after which Amina went ahead and baked. It turned out perfectly, she recalled and that did it; she began baking more often after that.

Having a love for art and cooking, she sought to join the Art stream in school but there was only a Home Economics class available. Before lon there was no Home Economi class either as the teacher le to work at another school. Th forced her to drop the idea writing the subject at th Caribbean Seconda Education Certificate exam However, she did not let th diminish her passion.

She later began baking f friends and relatives whenev an occasion arose. The thought she did an amazing jo and encouraged her to tak classes and turn her talent in business. At the time she w studying at the Cyril Pott College of Educatio Nonetheless, she followe their advice and did her trai ing through cake decorato Ingrid West.

With encouragement an support from her famil Amina opened Amina Creative Cakes and Cak Decorating. But she had h own challenges. One being th extreme designs some cu tomers come up with, yet sh has never let anyone down.

One of her most challen ing cakes, Amina said, was f a wedding, which led her baking 17 cakes in order make the required layers.

Amina still teaches and sh noted that balancing her bus ness and school can sometim be difficult. However, wh she does is bake cakes in th wee hours of the mornin after she would have writte