If you planned to stay off sweets, or decided to take on a hardcore diet, you may need to consider having a cheat day. That’s because this fully homemade, Sri Lankan small business has found a unique taste to drive your taste buds crazy with their unique chocolate biscuit puddings. But don’t worry, these chocolate biscuit puddings are not made to give you an overdose of sugar but to simply to tantalize your taste buds.
The lovely husband and wife couple, Gayani Welivitigoda and Hirosh Tharaka are not your typical chefs. Both being IT professionals for 5 and 7 years respectively, have not done much in the line of mainstream cooking, till now. However, they both share a passion as dedicated foodies and home cooks, and it was this common love for food that led then to start up Bakeliciouz.
The story starts with Hirosh being a highly ranked food reviewer and food hunter working with Zomato. During those days, a passion the couple shared was to find the perfect chocolate biscuit pudding that had the right mix of flavor and texture. But having failed to find a pudding they both liked, they decided to make it themselves. So, using their free time after work and on the weekends and holidays, Gayani and Hirosh started their Sri Lankan cottage business of making and selling homemade chocolate biscuit pudding that fulfilled their high standard for Chocolate Biscuit Puddings.
Bakeliciouz itself was initially planned to be a business that made cakes such as wedding cakes and structure cakes. However, this idea never really took off and it was revived with chocolate biscuit puddings as their flagship product and have now been going strong for 2 years. This was made possible with two key ingredients in each recipe. Firstly, they have a beautiful silky and gooey texture, and then they are completely home made from the recipe upwards.
Starting off with their first pudding, the classic chocolate biscuit pudding we all know, called “Finest Chocolate Biscuit Pudding”. It was made with melted milk chocolate and garnished with chocolate flakes and remains to this day a strong favorite among their customers. Bakeliciouz has now added several more amazing flavors and variations to their puddings such as their Milo or Nescafe based puddings and even an all new flavor which I got to try out firsthand, made with Snickers chocolates and salted caramel with whipped cream on top, called “Creamy Caramel Snickers BP”.
With their growing menu and popularity, Bakeliciouz has branched out to make great meals and bites with their partnering up with UberEATS in late 2018. With this new avenue of business, Hirosh now handles the orders received through UberEATS while the puddings are under the care of Gayani.
This new fast food venture has brought us more delights like their popular spicy noodles dish called “Spicy Chicken Sausage Noodles” and their special late night bite called “Mixed Chicken Sausage Bites”, which is ideal for a late night get together or when you decide to have drinks with friends over at your place. Their UberEATS menu also has a lovely Ice Milo and a Falooda as well to help wash it all down. With these growths in their business, Bakeliciouz has started to develop a large fan base of loyal customers, though most of them are there for their chocolate biscuit puddings.
From start to now, their main products are their chocolate biscuit puddings. These generally are sold in 750ml re-useable plastic boxes which ideally server a maximum of six portions and start at Rs. 1100. Now given their small size, most of their sales are done as pickup orders. However, Bakeliciouz now has started a “Delivery Saturday” which come up every so often where you can have your puddings delivered right to your door steps, as long as you are within the Colombo city limits or in the greater Colombo areas. This “Delivery Saturday” has turned out to be especially popular with people coming into Colombo for work on Saturdays, as it gives them a chance to easily have a few puddings delivered to their offices so that they can take it home with them.
Bakeliciouz sells mainly through their Facebook page www.facebook.com/bakeliciouz, their Instagram page @bakeliciouz.lk and through WhatsApp orders. It’s important to remember that you have to get your orders in generally two days before you need it or by Friday evening when a “Delivery Saturday” comes around. Of course, for those “Delivery Saturdays”, make sure to get your orders in on time since they only take around 35 orders. However, if you want to make a very large order for some special occasion, slightly more advance notice is needed, but they will do it for you in handy individual portion cups. In addition to their puddings, Bakeliciouz has some additional party treats like mini pizzas, rolls and patties that you can call up and get for any special occasion of yours.
For their other savory items, the main way to order these is through the UberEATS app. Hirosh mentioned how their UberEATS bites had some serious orders as they pushed out a special election day special where they took orders throughout the night, helping those watching the elections results to have something to nibble at as the results came in.
The secret recipe that Gayani and Hirosh employ to make Bakeliciouz so popular, has several key ingredients. Firstly, it’s a proper Sri Lankan business selling proper homemade chocolate biscuit puddings. Next, all their recipes are the brainchild of Gayani and Hirosh coming up with new ideas and through a trial and error process to see which recipes work and which still need refinement. After this, Bakeliciouz, chocolate biscuit puddings are all made to be of a perfect balance between gooey and silky and have no added preservatives, little to no added sugar or added eggs. This also means that their puddings don’t taste like they are artificially flavored or have way too much sugar. Bakeliciouz also makes every pudding to order. This means that every pudding that they sell is as fresh as possible.
The puddings made thus far have also been free from any added alcohol, however there are plans of having a few new items on the menu that will have bash of alcohol to give it a special taste for the adult fans.
Finally, the key ingredient that helps Bakeliciouz keep a highly loyal customer bases is because of their open and friendly relationships that they maintain with each customer, treating each one as a VIP of the business. But don’t take my word for it. You can check out all the positive feedback on their FB page and definitely try out their stuff for yourself, especially the puddings and see how fast you too will become a super fan of Bakeliciouz.
