SUBANG JAYA, April 29 — It’s hard to find a good bakery that balances out the sinful with a little good(ness). Good Ground Bakery fits the bill perfectly.
“The idea is when you buy a cake here, it’s as good as getting a homemade one... just like how your sister would make it,” explained Sarah Yeoh, who started the bakery in June last year. The 25-year-old finance and marketing graduate left an accounting career to pursue her sweet ambition.
Located in a well-hidden spot in Subang Jaya, the bakery caters more for take-aways since seating is limited to just one large communal table. About half of their business comes from supplying to F&B establishments. Cafe hoppers will recognise familiar items at coffee hangouts like Pulp in Bangsar, One Half in PJ and Room 203 at Publika.
Walk through the glass door and zoom in on their counter heaving with freshly-baked sweet treats, croissants and quiches. Everything beckons to you to eat them all! Prices here won’t kill your wallet either (think RM8 for a tart or RM6 for their bestselling banana loaf) so it’s definitely worth a drive to Subang Jaya to get your fix.
Sarah’s sweet pursuit started out as a hobby, back when she was in Form Four. “I was watching a cooking program on AFC (Asian Food Channel) and I started to try baking and I found it interesting.” Her first bake was a basic butter cake. It was essentially her mother’s go-to recipe, inherited from Sarah’s grandmother. Later, she took to watching videos and cookbooks to develop her baking skills.
In Australia where she studied, an order from a friend to supply a cake for a birthday celebration, turned baking into something more serious. “That was probably the first cake I ever sold,” she said, remembering the chocolate cake she made.
In addition, she also dabbled in some catering, making simple Chinese dishes to feed her friends who didn’t cook. During that time, she would constantly try a lot of things in Melbourne to develop her own tastebuds, in anticipation of opening her own bakery.
When she returned to Malaysia, she set up her own home-based bakery called The Honest Baker, reaching out to customers via Facebook. The choice for that moniker captures the values she has when it comes to baking. She adds, “It was a name that I really resonated with because I try to use natural ingredients.”
After six months, she discovered when doing a Google search that the name was pretty common, so she switched to Good Ground Bakery. “We believe it all begins with good ingredients and good business values. I believe that just knowing how to bake isn’t good enough. You got to also be honest.”
Those values and style of baking also extends to her team, a band of three full-timers that include Rachel Gan Rae Xian and Lee Yuin Yi, and a part-timer. All of them with the exception of one staff who took up a professional baking course, are in essence, self-taught home bakers.
