Dushinka Subramaniam bakes strawberry cheesecake cupcakes. Have you even heard of such a treat available in Colombo?
Deliciously sinful but wonderfully light at the same time, you do not feel like you’ve piled on the calories once you’ve eaten one. It’s everything you could ever want for in a strawberry based cupcake.
Munchkin, a home-run bakery is her brainchild. She bakes picture perfect macaroons too, which she says requires all her attention. “Macaroons are really easy to bake but you have to devote yourself to it entirely. Unlike baking cakes or cupcakes, you can do something to save it from becoming a flop but this doesn’t apply to macaroons. If it’s ruined, it’s ruined. The batter cannot be too runny,” explains Dushinka. Her macaroons are available in five different flavours, which are vanilla, chocolate, caramel, coffee and pistachio. They come wrapped in a box of sixteen and according to her, ‘they really are the latest trend’.
Dushinka says that she judges a restaurant by the dessert menu. “It’s strange that I do this because a good dessert is so important and wherever I am in the world, I flip to the back of the menu to have a look at the range of desserts.” She stresses on the importance of taste and consistency in a dessert.
She tells me that she didn’t think she would even venture into baking as a profession. “My mother used to bake for us and the only reason I would find myself in the kitchen is because I would be licking the batter off the bowl. I was never interested in baking,” says Dushinka with a sheepish grin on her face. And now Munchkin is two and a half years old.
Red Velvet Cake
Initially, she started off with baking cakes and cupcakes, then ventured into strawberry cheesecake and chocolate mousse cake, then cookies and brownies and finally macaroons, which she says is quite popular among her loyal customers. Dushinka doesn’t believe in baking plain cheesecake and topping it with a strawberry coulis. Instead, she includes a filling of strawberries inside the cheesecake.
She does a wide variety of cupcakes, the most popular ones being vanilla, chocolate, red velvet, hazelnut, banana and chocolate, double chocolate, caramel and of course the strawberry cheesecake one. Dushinka requires a minimum order of six. Novelty cupcakes for differently themed occasions can be done on request and she requires week’s notice to bake them. Cookies are on the menu too and this includes the novelty ones too.
Vanilla Macaroons
Red Velvet cupcakes
December was a busy month for Munchkin with Christmas orders flowing in. Christmas cake, love cake and plain vanilla cupcakes with Christmas designs kept Dushinka busy. Her latest invention is a chocolate and peanut butter cake.
Dushinka refuses to use substitute ingredients in her desserts and insists only on the best ingredients available. The response has really grown in the past two and a half years. “It is the motivation that keeps me going and it is nice to know that there is such a positive response. That makes me happy,” she says.
Valentine's Day cupcakes
For orders, contact Dushinka on 0777731196. She requires 24 hours in advance for orders except for the cheesecake which requires 48 hours. Munchkin is on Facebook too but the prices haven’t been updated in a while so do call her for inquiries.
Text by Sarah Kellapatha
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