ORDERS for Shafiqah Aqilah’s kek lapis has soared as Raya approaches.
Pikah, as she's popularly known,, said she has had to turn away “a lot of orders” for her kek lapis as she is shorthanded.
“I don't have many workers,” she said.
“Our target this year is to take what we can handle but the orders are been much more than last year's 100 trays.”
She has been in business since 2018 and has an shop, Piqah Patisserie, in Kampung Pulo Ulu in Petra Jaya.
She only started taking orders two weeks before the fasting month with delivery two to three days before Raya.
Sarawak's beloved kek lapis (layer cake) is a staple in Malay homes during Raya.
Piqah said her customers still have a chance to get their hands on her kek lapis before the festivities.
“I try to make a little extra. Usually, two to three days before Raya, I would set up a table in front of my house for walk-in customers.”
If her regulars could not get hold of her kek lapis, Pikah said they could always try her biscuits.
“This year, I received an order for 500 bottles of biscuits from just one friend,” she said.
Piqah began her business when she was still in school.
During the school holidays, she would bake cakes.
When she completed her secondary education in 2018, she dove headlong into the baking business.
“All my customers find all my kek lapis irresistible. They have a hard time picking a bad one,” she said with a laugh.
This Raya, she has introduced two types of kek lapis.
She said the cheese chocolate version is the fastest selling.
“It's a budget cake.”
Her most popular premium kek lapis are the lumut cheese belacan marmar and lapis masam manis little pony.
“These are my own creations and have not been tasted. I don't know why I am getting so many orders for them.
The premium cakes have imported ingredients such as cheese and chocolate.
Thanks to financial assistance from Sarawak Sayangku, Piqah's shop managed to survive the economic downturn caused by the pandemic.
“That kept my head above water. Now I'm optimistic of the future if the orders I am receiving now could be used as a yardstick.”
Orders from her kek lapis are not only confined to Kuching.
“I do get orders from the peninsula and other parts of Sarawak. I deliver them by post.
Another young pastry chef, Sharifah Haniffah, who works out of her home in Petra Jaya, is also seeing heavy orders for kek lapis this Raya.
In business since 2014 under the trade name Melur Kitchen, the internet-savvy 20-something also sells her goods online.
She said this year, her orders stood at 400 trays, up by 100 from last year.
Known by her nickname Aneem, her speciality is steamed kek lapis.
The kek lapis she makes comes in fantastic names: rainbow cheese, sabok Tun Razak, Holiday Inn, selipar Jepun and lapis Bumi.
This year, she introduced the Saddam Hussein and peanut butter cakes.
Both of them are steamed cakes.
“the steamed ones are the bestsellers,” she said.
Her best sellers of past years have been the Holiday Inn layer cake.
There's a twofold increase in orders for the cake for this year, she said – April 8, 2024.
