Ayeisha Headley loves to bake. The owner of Flour Petals is only 18 years old but having registered the business in March this year, she knows the direction she wants to take the “order-based home business which specialises in all things cake”.
The St Peter resident is balancing her studies at the University of the West Indies’ Cave Hill Campus with filling orders for her new and repeat customers.
While she has not settled on what she wants to do after her studies, she knows she has flour in her future, as she said “I’m going to continue baking for sure. I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with law yet.
“I always had a passion for baking and used to bake at school and for my friends. Whenever there was a cake sale or anything they would ask me to bake something for it, so then my friends encouraged me to open my own business and make some money from it,” said the Harrison College alumna.
“We started small with just friends and family but then we started advertising and doing different promotions and we grew. It is a much better clientele now. We do delivery to all over the island but there’s a delivery fee of between $5 to $20,” she said.
She told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY that being a full-time law student and a baker can be “tiring and stressful” at times but
she manages with the help of her boyfriend Jerome, her mother Angela, dad Rawlinson, her aunt Lana
and her 11-year-old cousin Jaina.
For large orders, she prepares ahead of the function, making fondant or icing flowers if she has
to because “they can be put down”. Other aspects that can also be done in advance are taken care of as well.
Headley said she started Flour Petals out her own pocket with the bare necessities but as time went on she made money and invested in more equipment.
While her cakes are not in supermarkets as yet, she has sold them at various flea markets, including the Barbados Public Workers Cooperative Credit Union’s, the National Cultural Foundation’s Speightstown Market and Coverley’s Flea Market last month. She would probably be participating at another before monthend.
Where did the name Flour Petals come from?
“I couldn’t decide on a name. Initially I was thinking of different things but I like anything that is cute, so I was thinking along the lines of flowers, butterflies. I wanted to bring out the cute and something that had to do with cake as well so my partner was actually the one that chose the name because I couldn’t completely decide on it.”
In order to determine her prices, the baker said she tries not to look
at other people’s work. Instead she takes into account the ingredients and how much work goes into the particular item and then pays herself.
In addition to the traditional flavours of brownies, cheesecakes and cupcakes, the young businesswoman has some unique combinations and bakes goods such as chocolate and pistachio biscotti.
“I think of things that I like or things that would go good together or if I see something I go, ‘Hmmm, this sounds good. Maybe I should attempt it”. “There’s a sweet bread biscotti, that I believe is more original because I’ve never seen anyone here with that. It’s the traditional Italian biscotti but with a Bajan twist to it. Hence I have the sweetbread biscotti. It has some of the sweetbread ingredients.
“I just experiment and if it’s good we put it on the menu; if it’s not then we go at it again or we just leave it,” she said.
As her business continues to bloom, Headley would like to have a small shop filled with all her goodies within the next five years.
