KUALA LUMPUR: Who would have thought that a bank officer who had served with Bank Negara for 27 years taking a different path by baking wedding cakes for a living.
Zulkiflee Mawan, 56, quit his job as a manager at the Risk Management Department after losing motivation to continue working in the field.
Five years in the bakery line, he is now able to get total sales of between RM40,000 and RM60,000 a month making wedding cakes.
“While working with the Central Bank, I took four years’ leave to accompany my wife, who was studying in the United Kingdom, and after returning to work after that, there was nothing to motivate me to do the job I was doing then.
“So, I opted for early retirement and started a bakery business even though I had no experience in bakery or good at baking cakes,” he told Bernama when contacted.
Zulkiflee said he then went to Tokyo to learn the techniques of making cakes and ‘sugar flowers’ from renowned cake artist Naomi Yamamoto and also to Singapore and Paris to learn the techniques of making flower decorations.
Kuala Lumpur-born Zulkiflee, who holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, organised the ‘Cake Walk’ in April last year, the first-ever cake exhibition in Malaysia which showcased 30 cakes of various designs and decorations.
He said it was difficult for him to earn a living by making cakes initially, but his determination paid off and he was able to open the Kafe Banker2Baker at Wangsa Maju here.
“I receive orders of six to 15 cakes a week and have made about 2,000 cakes until today. During the current movement control order (MCO) period, there is no order for wedding cakes, but we still receive orders for the ordinary cakes,” he added.
Zulkiflee said he had received orders to make cakes for prestigious events, including a birthday cake for former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s 92nd birthday.
He also attracted the attention of netizens when his son, Aiman Zulkiflee, shared a story and some photos of his father’s cake on his Twitter page.
The post has received over 23,200 likes and re-tweeted by more than 12,200 users. – Bernama
