More than a decade ago, Prachi Dhabal Deb of Pune, who was working at a multinational company, took a leap of faith to follow her creativity and enrolled in a short-term course on baking and cake decoration.
A professional cake artist now, Prachi has created a world record recently for a 200-kilogram vegan royal icing hand-piped cake. Her name is recorded in the London-based World Book of Records for creating the biggest ‘Vegan Royal Icing Hand-piped Structure’.
With a length of 10 feet and 1 inch, a height of 4 feet and 7 inches, and a width of 3 feet and 8 inches, the cake resembles a majestic Indian palace and is fully edible. It took Prachi three weeks to create the structure from designing, piping and assembling.
In her decade-old journey of what started as a hobby, this is just one of Prachi’s long list of achievements. She had first created a world record for making the maximum number of ‘Egg-free, Vegan Royal Icing Structures Meticulously Piped by Hand’ and the second for ‘Vegan Royal Icing Hand-piped Structure,’ a replica of Milan Cathedral (Italy).
The World Book of Records said Prachi has mastered the art of creating royal-looking, luxurious bakes, which are majestic in their appeal and delicious in taste. “Icing has certain limitations while creating structures. After the Milan Cathedral, I wanted to create a majestic Indian palace. This structure is a tribute to Indian architecture,” Prachi told News18.com.
Dehradun-borne 37-year-old Prachi has been living in Pune for more than 13 years. Elaborating on her journey to become an award-winning cake artist, Prachi said she liked baking when she was young but shifted her focus towards academia as she grew up.
“I have spent 11 years in the industry. I started my career as a financial analyst. I took a small break when things started getting monotonous. I have always been a very creative soul. I used to love baking and painting. I remember I baked my first cake when I was 10 years old in Dehradun. During my summer break, I used to bake cupcakes. But then I focused more on the studies,” she said.
After completing her education, Prachi joined a multinational company as a financial analyst. Bored of the mundane routine, she quit the high-paying job after a while. “Things were great and I was enjoying the work but it was very monotonous. I was not getting something new out of work so I took a break,” Prachi added.
In 2011, she travelled to Australia with her husband and enrolled in some courses on baking and cake decoration. When she came home, she started baking frequently.
A cake baked by Prachi at a party acted as a breakthrough in her baking career. “Everyone loved it. One of my friends who is an event manager asked me to bake a cake for her party. That is how it all began. In June 2012, I took my first order. Soon, I started getting hundreds of orders every month. Customization of the cake was a big deal in India. At the time, customised cakes were not easily available in shops. That was a very different market. This was not supposed to be a career,” Prachi said.
With time, more clients began approaching Prachi and then there was no going back. She said her vegan and eggless recipes became highly popular among the clients.
In 2019, Prachi became the first Indian to win a prestigious award for her royal icing art in Birmingham.
Talking about the shelf life of her latest structure, Prachi said, “With cake, the structure’s shelf life is one week. Since I did not put the cake in the structure, which is fully edible, can survive for up to years. Royal icing has a tendency to dry up with time. I still have my last structure inside a glass cabinet. It can stay as it is for years if not for rain and humidity. That’s why I store it in a glass cabinet.”
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