Written by: Areej Asad
Posted on: August 05, 2019 | 
| 中文
Strawberry Dream
Popularly known as the “carrot cake girl”, Bismah Azhar recently completed her bachelors from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), and decided to take her food venture forward with her mother by her side. During an interview, Bismah said that she developed her interest in baking after watching her mother, a College of Tourism &Hotel Management (COTHM) alum, prepare different recipes every other day.
According to Bismah, she was solely in charge of dealing with the management of her fresh home-baked desserts during her time at LUMS. She added that as there were not any home-made sweet items available on campus, soshe decided to share her most popular desserts with her fellow students and teachers.
The Political Science graduate described how she gained fame in only a few months with her two most popular dessert items on the menu: Banana Bread and Carrot Cake. Both priced at 650 PKR (half-loaf) and 1200 (full loaf). Prepared with so much love, I had the pleasure of trying three new items from the menu: Strawberry Dream, The Poke Cake and Chocolate Mousse. The first item on the list I tasted was the customer favorite: the subtle and beautifully prepared Strawberry Dream. The delicious cake consisted of neatly layered vanilla cream and added strawberry sauce, which was made from raw strawberries. As I took my first bite, I instantly found the cake to be light and fruity. Perfectly blended with the subtle cream and sauce, the cake felt moist and tasted extremely fresh. On the other hand, the sauce – also presented as a side, tasted both sweet and sour, which I found refreshing. This is a flavor that some people won’t be as familiar or satisfied with. However, I personally enjoyed my slice of Strawberry Dream specifically because of the little sour twist in the end.
Bismah explained that as they do not add any sugar to the mix. The taste is authentic strawberry with only lemon juice added as a preservative. She said, “We make all our fruit fillings and toppings in the same way, to avoid overly sweetened food.” The complete 2.5-pound cake costs 2500 PKR while a single slice is priced at 300 PKR.
The next item was the Poke Cake. True to its name, this is a cake which is defined by the holes that are poked in to infuse extra flavor to every bite. There are plenty of fillings which can be used when preparing a Poke Cake, like condensed milk, chocolate/vanilla cream, fruit sauce, or even just plain cream cheese. Due to high demands, Bismah decided to use chocolate filling. As I took my first bite, I found the texture to be rather soft and extremely moist. The single square piece is priced at 250 PKR, which I found a little overpriced, but compared to how delightful the taste had been, it was certainly worth it.
The final item was the Chocolate Mousse: another all-chocolate dessert. The single cup serving, priced at 300 PKR, consisted of two layers of chocolate cake, covered with a subtle amount of home-made chocolate mousse. I found the taste of this particular treat to be very similar to any good restaurant/café around the city. On the other hand, while the texture was creamy and smooth, sadly it got quite heavy on the stomach at the very end.
Bismah also pays close attention to the way her items are delivered to her customers. As their venture is still being set up from home, the duo is open to delivering the items personally in and out of Defence.
With the rise of business ventures on Instagram, plenty of good and affordable home-based bakeriesare available now that may put some old bakeries out of business. When asked how Bismah’s Bakeshop can come into mainstream, the duo responded that they are not focusing their baked goods on superficial appearance and fondant art, even though they find it to be important in this line of business. Bismah’s mother explained, “We are dedicated to work strictly on the quality and taste rather than just appearance.”
The mother-daughter duo aims to expand their food venture in near future. Bismah added, “We’ll see how well that goes if we have the means, we might look into setting up a physical shop soon.” You can find Bismah’s Bakeshop on Instagram (@bisbakesalot).
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