Ever Wondered what the Sugar Monkeys are made of?

We caught hold of Cindhana Manickavel of Sugar Monkeys for a quick word between her Auto-mated, jar and theme cakes. This is what she had to say about ‘monkey-ing’ around. 

” I have a Masters in Public Relations. I come from a typical South Indian family and my parents weren’t okay with me being out late at night at events. I’m also a tennis coach. In my spare time I tried out various recipes and people were saying nice things about them. They really wanted me to get out there with my Red Velvet Jars. And one fine day, one of my friends ordered a batch of 40 jars. I sent them over with my contact details. 35 people called me back! I was really happy and even today that’s what propels me. I didn’t market myself at all. The only promotion that went on was the daily post on Facebook of my cakes. I would post a question or contest the days when there were no cakes. This really, really helped. People like to see an active Facebook page. They like to look forward to your posts- know you’re in the business. I even hired a PR agency to do this for me when I was really busy. 

” I took my time getting the formal stuff sorted out-setting up a company, getting a trademark and registered. I’m the sort of person who’s really interested in something one day and horribly bored the next. So I wanted to wait around until I was really sure this is what I wanted. 

” I wanted to sell my products to a niche market. I handpicked boutiques, cafes and even a salon, to sell my products so that they would stay in the niche segment. I sell at Amethyst and Chamiers. This other thing I did was “Auto-mated Cakes”. I have three auto drivers with me. They go around delivering my cakes. They were a cute pink badge! 

“Next week we’re looking at launching our website. For our first anniversary we did this fun Treasure Hunt at the Besant Nagar Beach. Around 50 people walked around with monkey ears and it was great branding for me. 

“To women of today, I’d say ‘ Start something and think of new things to go with it every single day. Engage your followers and let them know you’re still around. No one likes a dead page- make sure people are constantly reminded’. ” 

“My two top cakes are the Red Velvet Jars and Messy Chocolate Cake. The messy cake is pure death by chocolate!” 

Call Cindhana at 098848 57156 and get messy!