Baking brings a smile to anyone's face

Tulip Kabir heads the technical team at the Meteorological Office in London and works with deep concentration at her work station. She could be studying the climate on Mars or gathering some complicated data from outer space on the impact of weather down here. And this same young woman works with equal concentration on using buttercream to embellish her cupcakes with traditional and intricate jamdani designs.

Tulip Kabir is from Bangladesh but has settled with her family in the UK. She remains a Bangladeshi at heart, loves wearing saris and uses traditional jewellery designs, mehndi patterns and jamdani motifs to decorate her cakes.

She learnt baking as a child from her mother. Her father was a professor of civil engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). Her mother would bake all sorts of cakes for their birthdays and Tulip still remembers the joy of sharing the cakes with her friends. After ending school in Dhaka, she returned to London where she was born, finished her A Levels and decided to study medicine.

With her daughter
From Tulip Kabir's collection
Baking can be therapeutic, says Tulip. It eases away the strain and stress of work

But she wasn't too enthusiastic about the idea of cutting up cadavers and so changed her plans. She grew an interest in medical machineries, image processing and such and got admitted to Surrey University in the UK. But there she changed her mind again and finally got her undergrad degree in electrical and electronic engineering.

She did her post graduate studies in mobile and satellite communications and worked for a few years at the Surrey Space Centre. Then from Surrey Technologies, in 2008 she joined the Met Office. In 2011 she became the head of the technical team there. She was the first and, till now, the only Bangladeshi in this prestigious professional position.

Tulip and her confections

During her interview, she was told that it would be compulsory for her to work at NATO, but much to their surprise, she rejected this condition. The Met Office officials later asked if she could bake and this time Tulip was surprised to learn about the baking culture in her Met Office team. After nine months of complicated procedure, she was finally given the nod to join.

Work began. She joined the technology team. After the success of their first project, she was told to bake a cake and bring it to office. It was tradition for the youngest member of the team to do this. She baked a delicious vanilla cake covered in buttercream frosting, topped with the head of a moose made with chocolate. They were amazed at her office and the head of her team took a piece of the cake to the chief executive. He said that before eating the cake, he took a picture of it and sent it to his wife.

Cakes mean happiness, laughter. Cakes bring in a festive feel, happiness. Tulip wants this happiness to spread out to the family, the community, the country, the world
Intricate designs on cupcakes
From Tulip Kabir's collection

Her team members said that the cake was amazing and heartening. It took them back to the mothers and their grandmas. Time passed and Tulip proved herself to be a skilled engineer and a gifted baker too. Her incredibly delicious cakes became a great favourite among her friends, family and colleagues. When they celebrated her daughter's birthday at the Grand Hotel, the hotel authorities were stunned at the cake she brought along and proposed that she supervise and make special wedding cakes at their hotel. She was even approached by Good Housekeeping and some other famous lifestyle magazines.

Dazzling designs

But the biggest reward for Tulip is the smile she receives for her cakes. She says there is nothing as good as bringing a smile to people's faces. Young and old, all people love cake. A beautifully decorated cake on someone's birthday or any special occasion is always a joy.

Baking can be therapeutic, says Tulip. It eases away the strain and stress of work. It is also an extraordinarily rewarding activity for a family to do together.

Tulip Kabir
Saiful Islam

At the moment her team has the massive responsibility of creating the world's biggest super computer. She is the head of a large team involved in this project of the UK government.

She believes her passion for baking has played a significant role in overcoming any sort of negativities that may have cropped up along the way. She also gives much credit to her husband Obedullah Wares and young daughter Yanira.

Tulip also works as a mental well-being counselor in her office. She gets to observe people closely and helps them work out their problems. So when she makes a cake for anyone, she tries to cater to that person's nature.

She has a word of advice for the new home bakers in Bangladesh: go ahead, don't give up and don't relinquish the work you love. She said the easiest way to bake a cake is try and use whatever ingredients are at hand.

She adds, like the UK Met Office, the big corporate houses in Bangladesh can also have baking sessions for their employees and home bakers, arrange training and baking fests. This draws people close and sends out a message of love.

Pretty cupcakes

Cakes mean happiness, laughter. Cakes bring in a festive feel, happiness. Tulip wants this happiness to spread out to the family, the community, the country, the world. Hats off to Tulip, on International Baking Day!

*This interview appeared in the lifestyle web haal.fashion and has been rewritten in English by Ayesha Kabir