Meet Aasiyah: BBCAKES Owner, Founder and Creative Director
“Through curating this business, I realized the importance of breaking the stereotypes of women-run home industries in my community. This is an idea I am very passionate about.”
BBCAKES CPT was launched in late 2022 as a student side-hustle. During this time, I saw a gap in the market for cake products of superior quality which appealed to a younger, trendy market. Just like the social scene, cake in Cape Town is very cliquey. My vision with BBCAKES was to create a brand which young women would identify with, regardless of their social/ financial /religious background. This was what drove the pink girly aesthetic, and fun and artsy designs. The aim was to cultivate a community of women who all share a love for celebrating small moments, find joy in creative gifting, and in embracing art in every day life.
BBCAKES was born out of a creative hobby. I come from a community where creative hobby turned businesses like home-baking, sewing and crocheting is often cast aside as informal, low-pay, women’s work. Through curating this business, I realized the importance of breaking the stereotypes of women-run home industries in my community. This is an idea I am very passionate about.
My backrgound is a mixture of both technical and creative. At school I was an equally passionate Math wizz and Visual Art student. I finished high School at Rustenburg Girls High in Cape Town with 7 distinctions and an award for Community Service. I was also heavily involved in school society groups where I was exposed to my first taste of planning and business. I then went on to study a Bachelor of Business Science in Economics (Hons) at UCT in Cape Town. I have a technical mind with a heart and hands which crave to create, this is how entrepreneurship was born in my life.
Since then, I have never looked back. I took on my creative side hustle as a full time job in 2024 – which at the time felt extremely liberating yet challenging. The BBCAKES community grew from strength to strength, to over 10 000 instagram followers after 10 months of doing it full time. Our products improved and our team expanded from here. We now are a beautiful team of 5 ladies, who all share a love for creating. The environment is collaborative and nurturing, where we constantly strive to improve our processes, and showcase new on-trend products. I always get asked how we do it in a community laced with so much competition. I find that if you’re doing something truly unique, you are no longer selling a product, but instead, you begin to sell experiences and unique moments. These are truly priceless.