The 22-year-old from Flora Park is the founder of BakedByMakgotsoL, a business she started last year after deciding to pursue her passion for baking.
She has always been interested in baking and would spend hours watching baking shows.
“It looked interesting and simple; which made me want to do it. But at the time, I didn’t have the foresight that it could be a sustainable career option,” she explained.
The bachelor of social sciences graduate did not actively make time to learn how to bake until the nationwide lockdown in March.
With free time on her hands and the desire to learn, by June she was able to put together a decent cake.
Makgotso challenged herself to make a professional birthday cake for herself and she received raving reviews which prompted her to start taking orders.
The road to perfecting her cakes was not easy, particularly the piping, which she spent countless hours perfecting.
The star of Makgotso’s baking business is her cupcake bouquet which involves intricate detailing for the flowers.
She decided on cupcake bouquets because she is not one for flowers as they wilt after a day or two.
She opted to make flowers from cupcakes because of the satisfaction that comes with eating them.
“It’s a win-win situation because you get the excitement of receiving flowers and the pleasure that comes with eating them without the pressure of maintaining them before they wilt,” she said.
She recalls that in the beginning, she would take the entire day piping her cupcakes into flowers and her family tried to assure her that they were perfect but she was not satisfied.
“I would pipe first thing in the morning until the late hours of the night. If it did not look perfect, I would scrape it off and start again,” she added.
She plans to one day have her own bakery and create employment. Her advice to fellow bakers who would like to start a business is to just take a plunge even without the capital; the business will grow one cake at a time.
