Amzy Cakes and Confectionaries

I am Fatima Abdulsalam, a married mother of two and the CEO of AmzyCakes and Confectionaries. I developed my baking skills during my time in secondary school and further honed them during my final year of university.

I can describe how I began my business. Even though I never imagined myself selling cakes and pastries, everything changed during my daughter’s first birthday in December 2018. While I was skilled at baking cakes, I lacked expertise in decorating them. I confided in my sister about wanting to improve my cake decoration skills, and she introduced me to her friend who was talented in both baking and cake decorations.

I signed up for a two-day course on cake decorating with buttercream and fondant. Following the class, I used the skills I learned to decorate my daughter’s first birthday cake. After the birthday celebration, someone sampled the cake and requested that I bake one for her son. I initially expressed my lack of expertise, but she persisted. I eventually created and decorated her son’s first birthday cake. At the event, another individual saw and sampled the cake.

As soon as she mentioned that her mother’s birthday was the following day, she asked if I could make a cake for her. I gladly agreed, and promptly went to the market to get what I needed. That’s how my business journey began. To improve my skills, I always made and decorated cakes for my siblings’ birthdays. My first wedding cake was for my best friend’s wedding. Consistency is crucial in this endeavor.

I continued to pursue my passion, and what helped me gain more customers was consistently sharing my work on all my social media platforms and stories. About 60% of my customers come from Facebook. When it came to my first wedding cake, I wasn’t very confident in my abilities and didn’t want to disappoint the client. So, I sought assistance from someone skilled in that line of work, and I learned a lot from her. To further refine my skills, I decided to enroll in an online wedding cake master class offered by Switbee Cakes.

I excelled in baking and decorating cakes, attracting students who wanted to learn pastry making as well. Since I lacked expertise in pastries, I attended classes at Deebakers school of catering and cake decorating, and also took various online courses. I have successfully graduated more than 30 students, with 40% of them now running successful businesses. They are doing very well.

I credit my husband as my main support system, both physically and financially. He is very supportive and always willing to lend a hand. He is instrumental in helping make business decisions.