KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 29 — Stuck for cake for an impromptu birthday party at work? Eat Cake Today has you covered. Set up in August by Crystal Tan, 31 and operated together with her high school friend, Sue Teen, 31, it’s a one-stop place for the cake of your choice delivered to your doorstep. The icing on the cake... delivery is promised within four hours of your order.

Crystal got the idea for the cake booking and delivery platform when she experienced difficulties sourcing for a gluten-free, dairy-free and egg-free cake for her client. “I went onto Instagram and noticed many bakers used hashtags to hopefully get noticed but beyond that, there was no singular avenue where they were on. I thought okay, what if we brought out a version of Etsy for cakes for these people.”

She also realised that the bakers would often supply to cafes or ask their customers to pick up their cakes. Interested buyers had little avenue to reach these bakers, since cafes are incredibly particular about sharing the baker’s details. Some cafes would also be reluctant to sell whole cakes for birthdays since they had limited stocks reserved for their own diners.

Crystal quickly recognised that there was definitely a demand for birthday cakes especially from busy office executives who needed the cakes for their colleague’s special day. With this in mind, Eat Cake Today was born to bridge that gap and bring cakes straight to the consumers without much hassle.

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Eat Cake Today is run by Sue Teen (left) and Crystal Tan (right).
Eat Cake Today is run by Sue Teen (left) and Crystal Tan (right).

Armed with the idea, Crystal and co-founder Elaine Yuen joined Alpha Startups, a pre-accelerator programme by 1337 Ventures. During the intense five-day boot camp, the duo tested and validated the idea for their start-up with the help of mentors and also through conducting surveys to gauge the market’s response. At the end, Eat Cake Today beat 25 teams to scoop up the RM10,000 cash prize to kickstart their venture.

According to Crystal, part of the funds has been channelled towards the development of their website, operating and marketing costs.

On August 18, Eat Cake Today’s website went “live” with four bakers on board: The Accidental Bakers, Jaslyn Cakes, Little Tee Cakes and Babycakes Sweetshoppe. These bakers were selected as they came highly recommended from the market surveys. To date, they have 15 bakers on board and they are still on the look out for more to join them.

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Initially, they would approach bakers based on their friends’ recommendations. As more people are gaining an awareness of their platform, it’s been easier for them to approach bakers to sign up for their service. Interested bakers can also fill up the form available on their website.

Salted caramel is a favourite for many of Eat Cake Today’s customers, like these delectable Chocolate Salted Caramel Cookie and Salted Caramel Cookie Cupcakes from Little Tee Cakes.
Salted caramel is a favourite for many of Eat Cake Today’s customers, like these delectable Chocolate Salted Caramel Cookie and Salted Caramel Cookie Cupcakes from Little Tee Cakes.

Reliability is an important factor for the duo when choosing bakers especially with those who need to juggle their own clients with the new ones from Eat Cake Today. “When we meet the bakers, we tend to ask them whether they are able to fulfil the orders, as it’s our aim to deliver cakes within four hours.” said Sue.

Creating a differentiation is also needed, hence each baker is asked to bring on board their specialties to prevent duplicate cake flavours. After two months, a check is conducted to decide if these flavours are selling or not and whether they need to be replaced with other items.

As Eat Cake Today reached out to more bakers, they realised it also benefits the bakers since it took away their administrative woes like dealing with customers and delivering the cake. “Initially when we started it was more from the customer’s perspective but as we delved further, we discovered that the bakers also appreciate some sort of platform to grow their business,” said Crystal.

Birthdays can be made prettier with these lovely Rose Raspberry Cupcakes from Little Tee Cakes.
Birthdays can be made prettier with these lovely Rose Raspberry Cupcakes from Little Tee Cakes.

The platform also includes an ingredients list for all the items carried, since there could be those suffering from allergies. They also have Bake KL on board who makes vegan and gluten-free cakes. As Crystal says, “because that is how it started and we are still trying to not forget that and lose it on the way.”

Sourcing for special needs cakes has also been a trial. “Most bakers will tell us, don’t talk to us about vegan cakes. And if we talk to them about diabetic cakes, they say... if you want to eat cake, you have to eat it sweet,” said Sue. They do have some less sweet cakes, which they recommend for customers when they ask.

Celebrate the festive season with a special customised Salju from Kek & Co.
Celebrate the festive season with a special customised Salju from Kek & Co.

Initially when Eat Cake Today started, they dealt mainly with “naked” cakes that have less decorations since delivery would be an issue. As customers demand for cakes with more elaborate designs, they have also started to offer these options. The designs are not specially customised, but a general one which customers can select from the website.

One would think chocolate is the perennial favourite for cakes but according to Eat Cake Today, their bestseller is salted caramel. “I think the new trend is the salted caramel,” said Sue. The platform has about 10 items with salted caramel to satisfy their customers from cakes, brownies, cupcakes, choux buns and even a gluten-free cake.

With Christmas coming up, Eat Cake Today has also geared up for the festivities with an array of celebration cakes, cupcakes, brownies, fruit cakes and cookies. There is even a gingerbread house! Orders can be booked ahead for the holiday season.

For their future plans, Eat Cake Today hopes to expand geographically since they now cater to Kuala Lumpur and PJ central only, while extra delivery cost is needed for Shah Alam and Klang. So far, they also have enquiries from Ipoh and Johor Bahru for the cakes.

Order your cakes and cookies at www.eatcaketoday.com or call tel:017-8800153 from Monday to Friday between 10.30am to 6pm.