HYDERABAD : These days, apart from taste and craftsmanship, a home-made touch, convenience, and safety assurances are what customers prefer when they buy cakes. If you want to order a cake or gift one to someone who lives in a different city, or even in the same city, ‘Kukkr’, an online platform lets you order customised cakes crafted by home bakers and delivers them.
Commenting on the name, Niharika Abhishek, founder shares, “The name ‘Kukkr’ was coined to rhyme with ‘baker’, just something fun and unique.” Started in December 2019, it offers customers creative and bespoke designs for themed cakes, dessert table items, and wedding cakes created by home bakers in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mumbai. The platform has 70 bakers from Hyderabad. Since their launch in the city in November 2020, they are servicing an average of 200-300 customers a month.
Mother to a four-year-old daughter, Niharika informs: “We offer options to customise theme cakes for any celebration, hygienically prepared by home bakers, and all orders are home-delivered. The biryani cake is our bestseller.” Niharika’s vision is to build a network of home bakers under a common brand name. She says, “The market of home bakers is extremely fragmented, with several bakers offering options to their neighboorhood and immediate vicinity. While there is a high demand for these, customers face a maze of choices while considering their options which include baker’s availability, delivery distance, workmanship and experience of home baker.
Moreover, product cataloguing, payment, and delivery options are coordinated on the phone and tedious to deal with as the approach followed by baker varies.” The website has a wide variety of cakes to choose from and orders have to be placed three days prior. Niharika adds, “Cakes can be customised as well.” The orders are then allocated to home bakers based on their availability, proximity from the delivery location, and expertise level required to execute the order.”
How does the platform ensure quality? Nikarika answers: “Experienced home bakers are on-boarded through a detailed selection process, sampling and reviews. We induct them with our packaging guidelines, to ensure every order we deliver is consistent.” Niharika graduated from University of Bath, UK in Business Administration and returned to India after living abroad for 18 years. On Kukkr, she says, “This holistic platform strives to help home bakers gain a wider reach and more business. The platform empowers women to be self-sufficient by further honing their talent while working from their homes.”
Currently available as a website, they have plans to launch a mobile app soon and expand their reach to more cities.
V-Day ready!
For Valentine’s Day, breakable heart-shaped pinatas are trending, says Niharika Abhishek, founder, Kukkr. Love-themed cakesicles, cupcakes and brownies can be ordered by February 11
— Tamanna S Mehdi tamanna@newindianexpress.com @tamannamehdi