The concept of ‘Home-baking’ flourished during this pandemic. However, here is an interesting story of – Paistika – a home-bakers based in Delhi, which is co-founded by sister duo – Gaurika and Pallavi Aggarwal. In a light-hearted conversation with Falguni Chaudhary of News Aur Chai, for the VoLocals campaign, they let us know about their journey of baking.
“Baking always fascinated us, but it also seemed like a tough job. As kids, we have always seen our mother baking a classic vanilla cake for us, which generated a curiosity in us to try our hands-on baking cakes, but every time we failed miserably. Eventually, we gave up on the idea of baking further, but then our mother motivated us to start again and find out the reason behind our flopped attempts. She bought us an OTG, and we started taking help from youtube,” says Gaurika Aggarwal.
“We started from baking a basic sponge to taking a few steps ahead and trying out different decorations. Sooner or later cakes became our best friends and every time we tried to make something new. For every occasion, we had a home-baked cake which everyone in our family just loved to have. When we gained a little confidence, we decided to start our Instagram page to share some of our work and spread the taste of the freshly home-baked goodies,” the sister duo reminisced their journey till now.
“Baking is an art, and its always about learning. Eggless baking is the one which comes with many challenges. So our current focus is on recreating recipes and make something new and tasty out of it. Also in recent times, people are going towards eggless and vegan products, so we are trying our hands on it,” says Pallavi Aggarwal.
For upcoming Christmas festivities and New Year, Paistika’s sister duo is curating assorted hampers and goodies.
The elder sister Pallavi has completed her graduation from Venkateshwara College; while the younger sister Gurika has completed her graduation in English honours from Hansraj college and thereafter to enhance her baking skills, she did a diploma in bakery and confectionary from Ihm Pusa Delhi further partaking industrial training in Theobroma Delhi for six months.
“Our work is home-based, and we at Paistika bake every product with the best ingredients possible. Every new start takes time, and so is the case with us. Our work is totally eggless, and therefore we face some kind of limitations to try classic products. We try to innovate the recipes to present something new yet classic,” says the sister duo who are optimistic about going ahead with the home-based baking.
“For us, baking is a passion and loving it at every step makes it the best experience. To follow your passion, along with the regular stuff of life going on is tough. But our mother always initiated and supported us. She always tries to give new ideas and prompts us to try different things,” says the duo while giving credit to their mother for keeping them motivated.
Currently, the founders are showcasing a plethora of sweet delicacies on their Instagram page “Paistika”. They offer customisations to curate products tailored to the customer’s need or occasions. Talking about the disruption caused by COVID, Gaurika Aggarwal says.
“Pandemic has affected the whole world severely and so to us. It has hit us more based on low opportunities and experiments. The shortage of various ingredients and to procure them is the biggest hindrance.”
“Moreover, the planning and ongoing process of work are also affected. We had to take some hand-on experience which is also not possible. To resolve such issues, we are taking help from the online workshops going on and also thanks to some stores like pigmento that are trying to provide home deliveries of ingredients which are helping to continue the work,” says the founders.
Check out the Instagram page of Paistika here.
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