SAN JOSE, CALIF.⸺ Ananya Raman, a senior at Silver Creek High School lives a busy life of running a local neighborhood bakery while being a full time highschool student preparing to go off to college. 

Raman started her business during the Covid-19 pandemic, a time when many people were cautious of going outside of their homes. Like many others during quarantine, she had taken up a new hobby of baking. As time went on, Raman’s skills slowly started improving to the point where one day her neighbor had requested for a cake to be made for her son’s birthday. Everyone in her neighborhood enjoyed eating her desserts and encouraged her to start a business. That vision came to life in the summer of 2020. 

Raman’s sells desserts such as cakes, cookies, and cupcakes. Although her specialty is custom cakes because she loves to create different landscapes and themes that customers will love. For example, once she made a cake that looked like a Chanel purse sitting on top of a rosette cake. Another popular dessert that her customers love is her chocolate cake. Raman has created her own foolproof recipe that she can whip up in a short period of time just through muscle memory. The same for her chocolate chip cookies. 

For those who want to order from Raman, she usually takes orders through calls or her website two weeks in advance. She likes to call customers to get the perfect understanding of their vision, since written descriptions can often be unclear.

 A challenge that she has had to face is having too many things to do and not enough time to do them all. Lately, Raman has had to cut down her orders due to college applications and demanding extracurriculars. She typically bakes late at night on school nights and early morning on the weekends to make sure she has the time to get all her tasks done. While taking several AP classes, school work, robotics, Science Olympiad, running a business, and more Raman makes sure to stick to strict timelines.

Raman says her advice to other high school students wanting to start their own business is “ I would tell everyone who is interested in running a business to just take the plunge. I know it sounds cliche, but if you really want to start a business and showcase a talent you have, you should just go for it, no matter what anyone else tells you. A lot of people will probably care about your product, and you never know where you may get support – it can be from your neighborhood, for example. And even if you fail a couple times, you should still keep going, because eventually all of your effort will be worth it.”

Because of the success of her business, Raman was able to raise and donate over $500 to the IFAW, or the International Fund for Animal Welfare. She always knew that she wanted to donate some of her profits to one of the causes that she cares about. “ I decided to support animal welfare, as it was a topic that my dad and I bonded over throughout my childhood. I’m happy that my community was able to support me in meeting my goal.”

Raman hopes to continue her baking business in the future. Although it may be difficult to bake in college, she wants to keep baking every opportunity she gets.