Business partners Kirsten Kaludjak and Lindsay Kidlapik have made one dream a reality and they have another in mind.
The Arviat bakers opened K&L Pastries two years ago after completing Inspire Nunavut, a six-month social entrepreneurship training program and business incubator that travels to communities in the territory.
“Inspire Nunavut helped a lot. They hired some mentors to help walk us through the business plan and gave us advice,” Kaludjak said.
They both had an interest in baking cakes and cupcakes and Kidlapik had gained decorating experience from a few years of mimicking what she'd seen while watching numerous YouTube instructional videos.
“It's pretty much self-taught and researching online how to use different techniques for decorating cakes,” Kidlapik said. “The first one that I did was for my daughter's birthday. It was two cakes that were characters from the cartoon movie Frozen. I designed their dresses with the cake – Elsa and Anna.”
Kaludjak, who had previously worked as a waitress and prepared food, proposed a unified effort and K&L was born.
Birthday cakes are their number one order, by far, followed by wedding cakes. Do they get tired of eating sweet stuff themselves?
“I am not a cake eater.I'll have a bite here and there... but I do get sick of taste-testing icing,” Kidlapik said, chuckling.
There have been a few catering contracts as well: healthy snacks for a smoking-cessation program, a dinner for a church group and Kaludjak baked 100 cookies for an event that a politician held.
They divide the orders based on whoever is asked directly or if one of them has more free time, she'll shoulder the load temporarily.
Both have other jobs that keep them busy during the day. They knew K&L would start out as a part-time business based out of their homes. However, their desire is that it will blossom into a cafe someday. The last locally-owned cafe operating in the community closed down a few years ago.
“Hopefully in the future we'll get that running,” said Kaludjak.
