No, these aren’t designer shoes, they’re cake toppers
Amanda Rhollynce may not have a closet full of designer shoes, but she can make replicas using fondant.
“People don’t believe my work is a cake, when they first see it, they almost always ask, “That's a cake?”
She is so good, at first glance, it is easy to think the shoe toppers on her cakes are real.
If anybody had told her five years ago that an online tutorial would be the starting point of a thriving baking business, Amanda would probably have laughed them off.
“I baked a cake with zero experience, all I did was follow YouTube tutorials. I took a photo of it and shared with my family and friends. They were so impressed, they started making orders,” she says.
At the time, she sold at least three cakes every day at an average price of Sh1,700 per kilogram, a price she says was relatively lower than what was quoted by other bakers in town, handing her business an edge.
She takes pride in the fact that she is able to run a business that is at odds with her academic background and turn her passion, baking, into a profitable venture.
Amanda, who has a degree in Education, and who was a primary school teacher for two years, says that she never thought she would become a baker.
She established the business with a capital of Sh50,000 and specialises in making shoe cake toppers, a factor that makes her cakes one of a kind.
Amanda Rhollynce displays some of edible shoe cakes and shoe toppers at her home in Nairobi on November 13, 2021.
From stilettoes, sandals, wedges and boots – whatever shoe type you can imagine, she can make, and top it on your wedding cake, birthday cake, graduation cake or baby shower cake. She also makes customised dessert bars. From a monthly salary of Sh20,000 that her teaching job earned her, she now earns an average monthly income of over Sh60,000 from her cake business. It takes her hours of painstaking preparation to get as accurate an image as possible, since her kind of art needs lots of concentration. She uses fondant, also known as sugar paste or ready roll icing, which comes in many different colours, and it is usually easy to model if prepared properly. She then uses sculpting tools to imprint texture and detail to the shoe.
The fondant must be rolled out with cornstarch to avoid sticking to any surface and to smooth it out. Once completely smooth and thin enough, she is able to mold it into many different artistic expressions.
“Shoes are really like every day sculptures, and some people truly revere their shoe collections, therefore these cakes tend to be amongst the most technical designs.”
“Most of my stiletto topper shoes costs Sh1,000 to Sh1,500 depending on the design, while the shoe cakes start from Sh3,000 and go up based on the complexity of the shoe and the servings required.”
She bakes more than 25 cakes in a month and dozens of macarons for her clients. She also supplies fellow bakers with shoe toppers.
Some of the edible shoe cakes and shoe toppers made by Amanda Rhollynce at her home in Nairobi
Her cakes come in a variety of flavours, such as fruit cake, chocolate mint, blueberry lemon caramel, passion vanilla, orange vanilla, chocolate marble, caramel and pinacolada.
“We decorate with orange butter cream and some sprinkles, the idea is to have a cake that is not only affordable, but pretty to look at too,” she says, pointing out that a customised cake comes at an extra cost.
From a starting price of Sh1,700 a kilo when she started baking, her cakes now cost as much as Sh2,700 per kilo, a price, she argues, that is worth the work, expertise and quality that goes into her cakes.
Her business has expanded to include bakery classes for those that want to go into business, stay-at-home mothers with an interest in improving their skills or starting a home business, and those looking to venture into the world of commercial baking. Amanda’s customer base is drawn from referrals and from her social media platforms, which she says is a great marketing tool.
“My dream is to supply the entire country every day with fresh tasty cakes and start a baking school.” BY DAILY NATION
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