Emily Chhen started Bake It Box in 2016 with the aim of making baking seamless by sending out a box that would provide everything a customer would need for a variety of delicious creations.
“When you open up your Bake It Box, you get all the dry ingredients and any decorations that you need, which are pre-measured for your convenience,” says Emily.
By providing all the dry ingredients, baking trays and instructions, a customer would just need to apply wet ingredients and utensils, allowing the focus to be on creating memories rather than the technicalities.
The idea formulated when she was caught out with expired ingredients when trying to bake a treat for a friend’s party.
“I thought it’ll be really nice to bake something up. And so I spent all this time googling and thinking, ‘oh, I could do this, I could do that."
"I looked at all my ingredients, and everything had expired. And I just thought, when’s the last time I actually baked something?”
She wanted to create a kit which contains only what you need, so ingredients don't up in the pantry, languishing beyond their expiry date,
Starting the business didn’t come without fears though. For the past 10 years, Emily has been a scientific researcher and in a stable job and lifestyle. Starting her own small business only added stress.
After a friend’s suggestion to attend Victoria’s month-long Small Business Festival, she managed to find a network of people who had been through the same experience.
“It was such a great ecosystem environment of being around like-minded people - people doing the same thing that you are, people have been successful, that were really wanting to help and share
"In terms of developing your business, or any issues that you’re facing - they’ve got so many resources and different events.”
The festival helped Emily finesse Bake It Box, which is now in its second year. Bake It Box is exclusively online, and Emily uses a subscription model, introducing a new cake to customers each month. Aspiring bakers can also buy one-off kits as well.
“I just thought that if I had something to remind me, of baking and the last time I baked, then that would be really helpful and that’s essentially why the subscription model enticed me.”
Social media is allowing her to keep the business growing traction by showing off her colourful cakes, such as the unicorn cake.
It's a creation so popular it’s on it's way to becoming a permanent fixture of the business' range.
Bake It Box a growing enterprise on the upward wave showing no signs off stopping with subscriptions growing four-fold since its launch.
Watch this story at the top of the page, or catch the full episode on SBS On Demand.
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