#2: Start Small, Dream Big.

Ever since I was a kid, I remember cutting a birthday cake (ordered and bought from a bakery), every year without fail. Honestly, I cut one this February too. Well, the truth, my friend, is that cakes are a passé. The cupcakes have taken over the world. If you don't believe me, Tanvi Mahajan will do the job for me.

Tanvi (another proud Dipsite) a fellow classmate at school, is now an extremely successful entrepreneur. She is the owner of Viya Cupcakery, which she began from home. "In the last year of school and first year of college, I used to make candles, put up stalls during Diwali and sell my beautiful creations. But the idea of starting a baking business came about when I was doing my Post Graduation in Marketing from Royal Holloway, University of London. I took a few baking classes from Le Beau Cake, UK which sealed the deal for me," she says. 

Well, it was not like she started baking only after taking those classes. "Since I was 7 or 8, I had been baking with my Nani and Maasi. What inspired me most was the smell of a freshly baked cake coming from their kitchen. Massi used to make a mouth watering vanilla butter cake. Oh! I can never forget the taste of that gorgeous silky cake," she remembers.

After completing her Post Grad, she returned back to Delhi in September 2011, with a Marketing degree and a plan. She started her Viya Cupacakery Facebook page, posted pictures of the cupcakes she could bake, and voila, the offers started pouring in. "Luckily, the cupcakes were new then, and the business took off!" she exclaims. 

"The best part is, I am able to help people express their feelings with my work. My cupcakes are a work-of-art. I feel it is like a blank canvas that I get to paint. Believe me, it makes me feel great. A new project, a new emotion every single day! And to top it all, I'm in full control of everything. One can never get bored in this business," she beams.

With no regrets whatsoever, Tanvi does her job with love and immense happiness. This leaves her with happy customers and a flourishing business. "I wouldn't change it for the world," she says. She began with cupcakes, and has now expanded her wings into designer cakes and waffles. Ask her about the future and she shares, "Well I am still deciding which way to go. We are looking at starting a culinary school or maybe opening a Cupcake and Waffle Bar. Let us see where it goes."

We wish her all the best in all her future endeavours. 

(And once I am back to Delhi, an order of yummy cupcakes is coming your way!)