Mother and son bonds through running home-based bakery set up during circuit breaker

The spare time brought on by the circuit breaker period was a breeding ground for great ideas. 

You may have thought about learning how to play an instrument or maybe considered picking up cooking. But how about setting up your own bakery?

That was what 19-year-old Dannon Low did with his 52-year-old mother, Cheryl, who loves baking and often baked for family and friends. They both figured that it might be a great opportunity for Cheryl to expand her reach to the public and together, they co-founded The Batter Cakes. 

While his mother does the baking herself, Dannon handles the more administrative side of the business. Apart from managing all their social media pages, he also handles the logistics necessary to run a home-based bakery, such as engaging deliverymen.

However, as with all new businesses, things didn’t always start out smoothly. When they first opened their bakery for business, they struggled to find customers and averaged just one to two orders per week.  Although they did not make a loss, profits were still extremely low.

Nevertheless, they pushed through adversity and brought their business to new heights. After utilising influencer outreach and word-of-mouth to actively promote their bakery, they were eventually featured on the food page Hungrygowhere which helped boost sales even more.

Famous for their carrot cakes, The Batter Cakes received over 50 orders for the week of Dec 19 to Dec 25 alone. 

Prior to starting The Batter Cakes, Dannon did not exactly enjoy the closest of relationships with his mother. But watching his mother, the sole baker in the business, put in the work all the time, Dannon expressed the deep respect he held for her. 

“I really do respect my mum a lot because although she has always wanted to start her own business, this is her first one. So for her to go full out like this really made me respect her a lot.”

While running the business together initially put a little strain on their relationship, Dannon feels that he has grown much closer to his mother as a result of it.

“It was a little messy at the start, because there were conflicts of interest in ideation of social media posts. For example, I would suggest an idea but she might shoot it down because she feels that it may not work. But we talked about it and things are so much more organized now.

“Although I have to say, our relationship is way better than before we started the bakery. Last time, when I reached home, I seldom spoke to her. But now we’re definitely closer since we have a lot more conversations,” said Dannon.

As for the running of the business itself, Cheryl bakes exclusively on weekends while Dannon simply works on it using whatever free time he has.

Perhaps starting family businesses together could be the next trendy way to bond with family?

If you’re ever in the mood for some gourmet home-made cakes, you can drop them a message on their Instagram page!