PETALING JAYA, April 21 — Before Zulkiflee Mawan became a sought-after baker to members of Malaysian high society, the 56-year-old spent 27 years as a manager at Bank Negara Malaysia’s risk management department.

Having spent the last five years creating stunning wedding cakes, it was only last week that many learned of his bold career change after his eldest son Muhammad Aiman shared his father’s story and cake designs that went viral.

The tweet received 27,500 likes and was retweeted 14,000 times.

 

Advertisement

 

In an interview with mStar, Zulkiflee told the Malay language portal it never crossed his mind to make cakes for a living because cooking wasn’t his forte.

Advertisement

The father of five enjoyed a comfortable career at Bank Negara before he decided to retire early, making the decision when he became bored and lost his motivation at the office.

“Before I quit, I took a four year break to accompany my wife who was studying in the UK and when I returned, I felt I had no drive or motivation to continue working,” said the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia accounting graduate.

After thinking long and hard, and discussing with his wife, he took the plunge.

Despite zero baking experience, he was drawn to cakes after seeing many cupcakes and cake businesses bloom on the internet.

He decided to try his luck and signed up for cake classes.

“I wanted to learn and improve my skills in a new area so I started giving out cakes to friends and family when I started becoming good at it.

“Thankfully many said my cakes were good so that’s how I mustered the courage to take orders and start selling them,” he said.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Hantaran cake inspired by @rizalman71

A post shared by Banker To Baker (@banker2baker) on

 

According to his Instagram page, Zulkiflee was also featured on Cake Masters Magazine in the UK.

With stiff competition from multiple home bakers that have sprung up, Zulkiflee bought a plane ticket to Tokyo to learn flower moulding from famed cake artist Naomi Yamamoto.

“I had to come up with a strategy and different products, that’s when I started making wedding and birthday cakes,” he said.

Once again, he struck gold and has never looked back since.

Zulkiflee also opened a café in Wangsa Maju named Banker2Baker which aptly suits his career switch.

Today, he has four employees helping him with his popular baked goods and the café has sold over 2,000 cakes.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

So cuteeeeee! Proper cake picture akan menyusul x lama lagi .. stay tuned! 😉 📸 from @mukhrizmahathir #tunm93

A post shared by Banker To Baker (@banker2baker) on

 

Despite his low-key status, what many don’t know is that Zulkiflee’s customer base includes celebrities and the well-heeled.

Having made former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s 93rd birthday cake, Zulkiflee was tasked to bake the wedding cake of Dr Mahathir’s granddaughter Meera Alyanna Mukhriz and her husband Ezran Daud Cheah in February.

 

 

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, Zulkiflee admitted that his wedding cake business has been affected but has been keeping busy with birthday cake orders and will start making cookies for the upcoming Hari Raya festivities.

“I haven’t been accepting birthday cake orders to focus on wedding cakes which require detail, time and attention.

“So now that there’s extra time, I’ve been taking on birthday cake orders for those who are celebrating at home with their families,” Zulkiflee said.

Zulkiflee is also offering free delivery on Fridays and Saturdays for his baked goods in the Kuala Lumpur area.