The Memory Keeper's Cake
As a young girl in Lesbeholden, a small, rural community in tropical Guyana, Sunita Shiwdin would watch hummingbirds flit from flower to flower in her family’s front yard. She recalls observing one sipping nectar from the hibiscus and wondering what the bird was tasting. So, she took apart the flower and ate the insides.
Today Shiwdin is a baker and small business owner in Glendale. She makes a hibiscus cupcake that’s vivid fuchsia, with subtle notes of cardamom and rose water-milk, a nod to the East Indian influence in Guyana.
“It’s a memory transcribed into a cupcake,” she says.
At Mahalo New York Bakery, Shiwdin bakes her memories. Even the Hawaiian theme of the café-bakery is a reminiscence, inspired by her tropical honeymoon.
Hawaii and Guyana are both tropical, both English-speaking, both remarkable mixtures of many cultures. And while the bakery offers traditional American standbys, like strawberry shortcake and red velvet cake, Shiwdin has elected to emphasize the tropical flavors and ingredients that the two places have in common.
“What makes you special is keeping it tropical,” she says.
Shiwdin, 32, is short, with a round face and large eyes that lock onto whomever she’s speaking with—she’s a good listener. Her dark hair is typically pulled back in a bun, the left side adorned with a white flower, and she wears small golden earrings. Her loose white tunic has pleated details, like tropical chef’s whites.
Free time has been short since she opened the bakery in early 2015 after several years as a substitute and temporary teacher in New York City. A self-taught baker and decorator, she catered for family and friends for years before professionalizing.
Shiwdin now keeps a sleeping bag in the back for quick breaks during overnight cake decorating sessions.
“God gave you the opportunity,” she says. “Not working hard and taking advantage of it is kind of a waste.”
Shiwdin (née Singh) immigrated to New York City with her family in 1995, sponsored by an uncle. She was 10, and accompanied by two sisters, her brother and mother. After passing through a home where so many other family members have found refuge, they eventually found their own place in the south side of Richmond Hill, the “Little Guyana” of Queens.
Shiwdin had never been to a city before. She had never attended school. She was illiterate, and although Guyana is an English-speaking former British colony she was shuttled into ESL classes until high school. Her voice chokes with regret when she recalls the “broken” variety of English she spoke when she first came to the United States.
Guyana has made strides in the 20 years since she left, to the point that the country now consistently rates among the highest in the world in gender equality for education and health, according to the World Economic Forum. The very same reports, however, point to limited political and economic opportunities for women. Income inequality in Guyana is strongly influenced by gender, class and race.
“Guyana didn’t provide a lot of opportunities for women,” says Shiwdin. “I know my mom wanted more for us.”
Her childhood home had no electricity and no plumbing. And as much as the absence of those utilities shaped her experience, Shiwdin repeatedly notes that there was no oven. No baking. No cakes.
“Maybe that’s why I’m obsessed with baking?” Shiwdin says. Once she began cake-making as a high school senior, she took every opportunity to bake for birthdays and other special occasions. Shiwdin spent a year perfecting vegan recipes for carrot cake and matcha green tea-blueberry flavors. But asked about her work ethic, she demurs. “Everything’s challenging to develop,” she says. Her eyes light up discussing some of the orders in her cake catalog, especially for celebrations, like weddings and gender-reveals for pregnant couples.
The business is an expression of her passions and background— memories in aggregate. Her mother made rice pudding back in Guyana, and now produces it for the bakery. A mango-mango cupcake reminds Shiwdin of climbing mango trees with her older brother. As they bit into the ripe flesh, mango juice would dribble down their chins. To find the right sweetness and intensity of flavor, Shiwdin tested extracts and purées, and different varieties of fresh and frozen mangos, before finding a fresh mango pulp that did the job.
The bakery interior is a cheery yellow, with Hawaiian paraphernalia strewn about. Framed honeymoon photographs hang on the walls, from a leg spent on Kauai, where the water is impossibly blue, the landscape impossibly green (Waikiki, Shiwdin says with a shrug, was like “New York with palm trees”).
The tropical theme is unusual for the area, but Shiwdin says she’s happy with the way her shop has fit into Glendale’s small neighborhood feel.
“Sometimes you make your own family,” she says.
Sunita Shiwdin | @sunitashiwdin
Mahalo New York Bakery | @mahalonewyorkbakery
