For ‘Cup Cakes and Things’ Malika sees light at ...

demand at weddings, bridal showers, and school parties, occasions at which, perhaps, one might not have anticipated a high demand for cupcakes.

But the pleasantness of the pursuit takes the demanding edge from the making of cakes, Malika says. You get to dabble in the good feeling of the ingredients like buttercream, icings, chocolate, and an array of attractive fillings. But that is not all. You also get to add your own selfmade touch, fashioned out of icings flavoured with local fruit including orange and passion fruit.

In pursuit of building a business you arrive at a point where you begin to feel a pleasing growth. It is a sensation that drives ambition for expansion. As an incentive to her growing band of customers she began to offer free delivery in Georgetown; and like any shrewd businessperson would do, she began to build on her cupcake base, offering stuffed eggs, cheese straws and other popular and tasty finger foods.

Technology has helped. YouTube and other sites help Malika to engage her clients in order to ensure that their orders are correctly understood. Cupcake designs would be forwarded to her electronically, the sophistication of the technology allowing for such ‘chopping and changing’ as might be required before the end result is delivered. Designing the ‘little things’ to the level of precision demanded by the customers can sometimes be taxing, Malika says.

Focussed on building a reputation for creative excellence in her work, Malika has immersed herself in online research into the creative dimension of the making of cupcakes. Part of her focus is on fashioning images that attach her creations to the Guyanese culture, an approach that is as popular with a market that comprises both children and grown-ups.

Not unused to living with challenges, Malika is resolved to fight for the survival and growth of an enterprise that has been as much a therapy as it has been a business venture. By no means a demonstrative character, she appears quietly resolved that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

relatively speaking, unacceptably limited and simply must be upgraded. There is manifestly immense value in investing in the creation of a high-class consumer outlet facility, with all the appurtenances of a modern supermarket that can place an enhanced promotional face on local goods. That is a responsibility that the state ought to have accomplished long ago. This, incidentally, is not the first time that we are saying this.

We will persist in our promotional features and in our appeals to consumers to ‘touch base’ with those micro and small business covered in our columns. They need our support at this time.