These twins from Toronto took their artistic talent, made it edible and during the COVID-19 pandemic they made it into a business.
Alyssa and Jacqueline Duhln are 19-year old fraternal twin sisters and second-year Biomedical Science students at York University, with no culinary training.
They are also the owners and sole bakers of the virtual cake shop AJ Bakes and Cakes that creates crazy realistic 3D cakes.
In the summer of 2020, the Duhln sisters, who have loved baking from a young age, found themselves with some extra time on their hands while working from home.
"We started AJ Bakes and Cakes because our family and friends told us, 'people would buy this from you,' and then people actually did!" Jacqueline told blogTO.
"So we started being active on our Instagram account and people started placing orders," said Alyssa.
The sisters, who had been making cakes for their family and friends since they were 11 years old, took their services public.
"People started to reach out to us during the summer because in a pandemic you can't have a big party but you can have a really cool cake for your family members," said Alyssa.
They now have over 500 followers on Instagram.
"When we make cakes we just have fun and when school is really stressful it's a great way to relax," said Jacqueline.
Since the sisters are full-time students they can only take on about four cake orders a month.
With each cake taking anywhere between 4 and 24 hours to make, on top of a full university course load, it adds up.
They offer custom designs (and are always up for a challenge) in a variety of flavours.
Their pricing starts at $75 and goes upwards depending on the size, flavour, and how labour intensive the cake is.
The sisters grew up with an artistic gift and at 11 years old they started watching cooking channels and YouTube videos on how to bake.
"We started baking when we were really young with our mom and later we started watching baking shows and YouTube videos," said Jacqueline.
Their first attempt at baking a cake was not the disaster you might picture.
The cake was for their grandmother's 95th birthday — and they were just 11 when they made it.
While the sisters hope to attend medical or grad school after they graduate from York University, their cake business is their backup plan.
"It's our plan B, it will always be a side hobby, or our full-time business if all else fails," said Jacqueline.
"We just love to be creative and art is our creative outlet, we love the reaction when people get their cakes," Alyssa added.
While there are a lot of bakeries in Toronto, not all — if any — can say they're run by twin sisters who are still in university.
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