Ashwini Sarabhai is now a known name in culinary circles, especially when it comes to cakes. Once upon a time, she was an IT professional with Infosys and used to go to the US for job-related work. During her trips, she took baking classes during her free time and even won awards.

By the time she came back to India, Ashwini had decided her calling was baking and quit her cushy IT job. Today, she is full-time into making beautiful, elegantly crafted cakes. She also teaches and takes cake-making classes and has trained about 10,000 students to date.

Her venture, Dream Cakes, started in 2006 and expanded into India’s first online cake academy in 2012. She is quite popular for her realistic-looking sugar flowers and cake decorations. In fact, Ashwini has been a finalist in the Cake Masters Magazine Awards 2018 and 2019, which are akin to Cake Oscars in the category of sugar flowers.

Born and brought up in Mumbai, the 42-yr-old moved to Hyderabad some ten years back. She has been awarded India’s Top 10 Cake Artists by Cake Masters Magazine, the UK, for two consecutive years in a row, 2017 and 2018. She also launched Sugar Magazine, India’s first cake art magazine, to encourage Indian talent. She says she believes in making elegant cakes rather than quirky ones. Apart from taking orders for weddings and special occasions, Ashwini makes realistic sugar flowers to adorn people’s dessert tables. Each flower takes from 15 minutes to six hours, and she charges Rs 3000 per kg and above for a designer cake.

And now her kids Aditya and Aarya run a baking channel on YouTube called Princess Bakes. The Dream Cakes takes prior orders, and one can reach them at her Instagram page.