Page 8 - Florida Sentinel 12-4-20

Local
Woman’s Hidden Talent Found In Baking Cakes
BY GWEN HAYES Sentinel Editor
A young mother of 3 ac- cidentally found her “hidden talent” while assisting her sister with a cake project. That was in 2018.
“My sister, Qadeerah, called and wanted me to help her with a cake project. She had a little business going and I started helping her. I started taking orders and making design,” Haleemah Alshaair explained.
Before this experience with her sister, Ms. Al- shaair did not have an in- terest in cake-baking on a regular basis. This is the tal- ent she had no idea she owned.
Having branched off on her own, Ms. Alshaair says when taking orders she finds out what her customers want and then tweaks their re- quest to her own design.
Last year, Ms. Alshaair found herself homeless with her children. She was work-
MS. HALEEMAH ALSHAAIR
ing, but wasn’t getting enough hours to pay for the hotel room and other bills. She lost the job she had at Amazon.
Family members stepped in and helped with paying for her housing.
She decided to increase the cake-baking to help pay bills. She could buy food for the family and pay for hous- ing, where she used the small refrigerator to store cake
CUPCAKES
products and food for the family.
“I would bake the cakes at my sister’s, Kadira’s house in Tampa, drive back to the hotel room, empty out the mini fridge in the hotel room and store all my cake stuff,” she explained with a chuckle.
She started getting no- ticed in the hotel when peo- ple saw her delivering, creating or bringing in cakes. With the help of family, she was able to get another mini fridge, a brand new mixer and some cake supplies to fill the orders she’s getting.
After about 6 months, she and her family were able
MONEY CAKE
to leave the hotel and get a place in Winter Haven.
“I’m in Winter Haven, but all of my customers are in Tampa. I come to Tampa 2-3 days a week to make deliver- ies. With my family, we’re baking about four to eight cakes a week.
“Right now, I’m trying to get my name out there so I can make more cakes; and I’m also in the process of get- ting everything legalized. It’s a little hard now because everything I’m making goes to bills. But I’m very confi- dent that God wouldn’t have given me this talent for me to just sit here... when I can go bigger,” she said.
UNICORN CAKE
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