Linden’s Baker Debra Richmond finding her dream in the cake-baking industry

Jun 25, 2023 News

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By: Vanessa Braithwaite Moore

Kaieteur News – When Debra Richmond established her cake gallery at 55, it was the reality of a dream she had for decades. Today, she is soaking up every bit of that dream, as well as sharing her knowledge with others through her cake decorating classes.

When visiting Linden, Debra’s Delight is the ‘go-to’ place for delicious cakes and mauby, as well as other mouth-watering pastries and creole cuisine. She has cemented her name in the cake-baking industry for the last five years, and though she commercialised this passion belatedly, she remains committed to being a household name in the bauxite community.

Richmond hails from Victory Valley, Wismar Linden, where she grew up in an extended family that consisted of numerous bakers from whom she learned to bake.

“I grew up in a home with relatives who cooked a lot and always had a lot of bakers. My family was big and I grew up knowing my parents and grandparents always cooking, so that was imparted in me,” Richmond recalled.

After completing her secondary education at the Linden Foundation Secondary School, Richmond had four children and would be a stay at home mom.

However, when she separated from her children’s father, the single parent mother began seeking ways in which she could provide for herself and her children.

“I was thinking what to do that can really support me and my family and this thought came to me to start baking and selling cake and pastries,” she said.

So in 1994, Richmond made use of the teaching she got from her family and would begin selling on the roadside of the Wismar shore.

Richmond remembered being in the first group of people to bake and sell pastries on the roadside of the Wismar shore, and for her, business was bright, well at least for a while.

Following the closing of the bauxite company, the young mother at the time felt the indirect negative effects of the action.

“Everything was going nice but then after the bauxite company closed down and business got slow in Linden, and business was not like before,” she remembered.

Luckily in 2003, Richmond was given the opportunity to migrate to St. Maarten.

While living in St. Maarten, the mother of four worked as a cashier at Subway, and within 10 years, from 2003 to 2012, worked her way up to the manager of the said fast food company. She would alsowork at KFC in the nights.

Since she always had a passion for baking and decorating cakes, she would take part in bakery courses to enhance her craft. Richmond would also begin baking cakes for persons in her community to get an extra dollar.

After completing a total of eight bakery courses in 2015, Richmond decided to officially launch her cake business, Debra’s Delight in St. Maarten in April of the said year.

She related, “I named it Debra’s Delight because I always liked this scripture, ‘Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desire of your heart’ and that was always my desire.”

In order to promote her business, Richmond would share photos of her cake designs on social media. This not only caught the attention of persons in St. Marteen, but those of Lindeners too.

When she returned to Linden in 2017, she did not hesitate to enter the open market for cake decorating services and there is when the Guyanese version of Debra’s Delight was birthed.

“After some years in St. Marteen, I decide to return home because I was getting the impression that the type of work that I normally do was not being done much in Linden at the time. There were only a few people doing it so a lot of persons had to be going to Georgetown to get their personalised cakes done.”

Located on Republic Avenue opposite the Linden Mayor and Town Council, the small cake gallery has a wide variety of cakes ranging from lemon, fruit, chocolate and black cakes daily, as well as continental and creole breakfasts and desserts.

She took her business a step further by launching a cake-making instruction class. She also became a manufacturer of ready-made Marshmallow Fondant which has been certified by Guyana’s Food and Drug Handling Department and is available in local supermarkets in Linden and the Guyana Shop in Georgetown.

When asked why she started her dream career so late, Richmond said she was motivated by the by life story of KFC founder, Colonel Sanders whose success came in his 60s.

“I was motivated when I learned that KFC’s founder, Colonel Sanders started the business at age 65. I was amazed and I told myself that I am not too old to start my business,” Richmond explained.

The entrepreneur’s advice to persons is to never give up on their dreams.

“Some people get their breakthrough early; some people get it late. If you have a dream, never give up on it because sometimes when you least expect it to come through, it will, at the right time.”

Currently, Richmond is preparing to further expand her business. Her hope is to turn Debra’s Delight into a drive-through business offering displayed menus, an easier ordering system, more personalized services, and something new for the people of Linden.

“This is not the end, I have a vision and a plan and it takes time…This is my fourth year and I have developed and I thank God for that,” she said.

 

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• an easier ordering system, displayed menus, KFC founder, more personalized services

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