Desserts For All Seasons

IN AN ANIMATED CHAT WITH BAKER AND FOUNDER OF BLANCHETTE, BIANCA MANIK, TINA THAKRAR LEARNS HOW TO ELEVATE CLASSIC DESSERTS TO THE POINT OF INDULGENCE WITH THE SIMPLE MIX OF LOVE AND CARE

- TINA THAKRAR

For many of us, there is solace in food. Whether it’s a home-cooked meal, a goto dish at your neighbourhood eatery, or a tub of ice cream, we often feel most satiated by food we’re familiar with. The urge to eat something that doesn’t disappoint, and fills our soul as much as it does our stomach, can only be combatted by simple, unfussy food where basic flavours hold fort. No one understands this better than Bianca Manik, a young baker and pastry chef from Mumbai, who has built an entire dessert business on the concept of comfort.

Bianca isn’t just your everyday baker. She’s experienced (baked her first cake at 9 years old), trained (Le Cordon Bleu London, School for European Pastry Mumbai, Carpigiani Gelato Pastry University Italy), and above all, has a unabashed love for desserts (think chocolate ice cream with butterscotch chunks topped with hot fudge). Today, at just 26 years of age, she runs a flourishing baking business called Blanchette, handles a studio kitchen and a team of nine, caters to a celebrity clientele, and has mastered the art of offering indulgent pleasure in a single bite.

Blanchette was launched in February 2020, two weeks before the pandemic hit, and saw unprecedented growth in a matter of weeks. With demand, the small menu of two cookies and a cake snowballed into an extensive selection of desserts with seasonal varieties and monthly additions, including the recently launched textural ice creams.