1. Your business has such an interesting name. Why did you decide to use the name Cukay's?
Cukay is my real name and I figured that if I use my name, it would be something that will catch anybody's attention. It's unique and it makes you wonder the meaning of the name. It's just my nickname, usually used in spanish families and true enough, most of my clients, ask my sales ladies, "what is cukay?" "Is it a name?" "Is she pretty?" (lol), etc. So it worked just fine. It leaves everybody curious.
2. Have you always been into baking? How did your business start?
I started baking since I was 16 and till now, I still use some of my baking cups. I attended short courses and enjoyed them a lot. When i was 18-19, I started selling cookies in school. When I got married, would practice cooking for the family until I started selling spanish food then in 2004, when all of my kids were out most of the time, I enrolled in a long course of baking and I started making use of what I learned. In our school there is 1 specific cake that I loved so I started to master it until relatives loved it, friends started loving it until 1 would order, then 2 until it became a word of mouth. I started selling the lemon torte one cake a month until it started growing, started to join bazaars and after 2 years, it boomed especially the red velvet and the smore's cookies. I have been actively joining the bazaars for almost 3 years now.
4. What are your best sellers on the menu?
My bestsellers are the Red Velvet, Decadent, Lemon torte, cookies and the sans rivals.
5. Where do you get ideas for the flavors of your pastries? Who are your target market?
I get my ideas from my own taste and what my children tell me. I always ask my girls, ages 18 and 21 what they think would sell because it is usually their age group that buys a lot until my daughter started working and they find out Im her mom, then office would make it a regular thing to give away to clients, then my son in csa would take a slice to donate or something then classmates will find out and buy, bazaars really a hit too especially ATC and ROCKWELL. My target market are the teenagers and moms.
6. What's something your customers can look forward to in the future?
When you are in the business, little by little, you will learn from experiences and all and you will also feel if you are getting bigger. You will notice you already lack mixers, refs, stocks getting more and more so you will just have to go with the flow and that is how I do it. I really join bazaars for exposure number one and marketing. As much as I want to be there to meet my customers, I am stock in my production area to make sure everything is in order but there are sunday's when Im don baking, I make it a point to go and visit . Regarding expanding, eventually I will have to open my own coffee shop bakeshop because clients have been texting me to do so but until I can keep my expenses down while I am growing, I think that is important. It is so hard to have many overheads like rental, people, etc so maybe I would want to supply coffee shops and join bazaars, accept orders until I have enough capital to open one of my own.
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| Red Velvet mini cupcake |
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| Assorted mini cupcakes: Carrot, Mocha with espresso buttercream, Chocolate with peanut butter, Dulce de Leche and Red Velvet |
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| S'mores Cookie (left) and Oreo Stuffed Cookie (right), both P60 |
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| Sneak peak: Gooey marshmallows |
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| What's inside? Graham crackers layered with chocolate and marshmallows |
The Dulce de Leche was definitely my favorite. Once I took a bite, it literally dissolved in my mouth. The topping was even thicker than the cupcake itself!
At first I thought there would be too many flavors going on with the S'mores cookie since I usually just enjoy eating plain chocolate chip cookies. But I guess you can't go wrong with chocolate, graham crackers, marshmallows and a soft cookie base!
Apart from buying from their bazaar stalls in Alabang Town Center and Rockwell, you could also order through text and have it picked up in any of Cukay's stalls or in her own home (address and contact information below).
Cukay's
844-5707 / 0917-859-6244
1632 Dian St.
San Isidro, Makati City
