Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
She makes “gateaux” molds that mimic cartoon shapes and drawings, as if she were drawing an artistic painting. With her fingertips, Iman Walid Dabour (29 years old), a resident of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, excels in preparing “gateaux” molds with great precision and skill. She weaves drawings with her creative touch, attracting the attention of many people to admire the patterns she creates. She is creative in preparing cakes of striking shapes and colors, in different sizes, and decorating them with sugar paste or other materials. Her idea stemmed from her hobby, so the work was linked to the hobby, and from here Iman set out to expand her project into the world of sweets with different names, and moved from the hobby stage to providing her family’s only source of income. She wrote her success story in the field of preparing “gateaux” molds. Stages and Ingredients Iman prepares the cake in several stages. She begins with baking and preparing the mold, which takes an hour. Then she leaves it to cool, then adds the inner filling to it. An hour before delivering it, she covers the outside of the cake and decorates it. At this moment, the mold represents a painting for her that she is creative in decorating to make it a beautiful shape. The long working hours were not an obstacle to achieving her ambition, and with her will, Iman overcame all the turns and circumstances that she faced. Names for the different cakes that Iman masters, such as: (cake mould, cupcakes, cheesecake, strawberry toffee, sugar paste, moist Italian chocolate cake covered with chocolate ganache, Frozen cake with cupcakes, and teddy bear cake). And “cupcakes” are cake mixes. With chocolate, it is baked using custom paper or cardboard cups, and when it comes out of the oven, its layers are stuffed with nuts and fruits and decorated with cream. The “strawberry mousse cheesecake” consists of cream, sour cream, liquid cheese, strawberry flavor, biscuits, and butter, while the cake dough consists of: eggs, sugar, flour, And cocoa, milk, vanilla, baking powder, and vegetable oil. As for "semolina paste with ajwa", this is a Libyan recipe made by Iman, and it consists of semolina, flour, ghee, rose water, vegetable oil, and flour, which she mixes until a dough is formed, which she fills with ajwa and shapes as desired. A success story with a beginning, and the beginning with Iman was the visit of her husband’s friends to their home. She then prepared a “cake” filled with chocolate. She recalled that day in her interview with the “Felesteen” newspaper: “The guests were impressed by what I prepared for them, and after a week one of them asked for a “gateaux” mold in memory of The birth of his child.” Iman agreed to the request, prepared the mold more professionally, decorated it, and bought cardboard to wrap it. From here, she made her way into the world of making “gateaux.” Four years ago, she began preparing molds, pastries, cakes, and maamoul, and publishing her pictures on her pages on social networking sites. Thus, she continued to develop her work in the “gateaux” industry, and her ideas diversified, taking advantage of her browsing on the Internet. Her work in cake making developed and she began to create models in distinct shapes, and she continued: “The project began to grow and the pressure increased. My page followers loved the work that I was publishing, and orders began to increase.” To make maamoul, cakes, pastries, and gateau molds, and the pressure increases; I work alone.” But in the face of this pressure, Iman decided to specialize in the field of cake making, and about that she says: “I entered the field of cake making, because I felt that I could present elaborate things with great skill and craftsmanship, and I expanded it in terms of fillings, decoration, sizes, and making cakes with pictures of cartoons or with sugar paste.” ". Unexpected success: “I did not expect the project to be this successful, and today I reject some requests if the pressure is great, so that I can maintain the level of proficiency in work that people are accustomed to,” she says, and the biggest problem Iman faces, as she lives in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, is the cost of transportation. Especially since most of the orders come from Gaza City. The filling varies between Nutella chocolate, hazelnuts, and nuts, and the cake consists of four layers, all filled with fruits and nuts, or a mixture of the two. At the beginning of her work, Iman faced several problems, including the lack of an oven, a special refrigerator for her work, cake molds, and tools, in addition to the problem of power outages. In one of the rooms of her husband’s family home, Iman’s project (the only source of income for her family) was growing and growing until she was able to buy a private refrigerator. For her project, bringing the required tools and molds, with her husband's constant encouragement. How did you combine your work and household affairs? She provides an answer stemming from her experience of success: “Managing household affairs - especially since I have three children - is not a simple matter, and at the same time my project is our source of livelihood, since my husband works as an employee in the Palestinian Authority, and his salary goes to repaying a loan from The bank made it necessary for me to take responsibility and balance between my work and taking care of my children’s affairs.” But how did you win customers? There is a secret in the answer to that. She says: “The most important thing is quality and credibility in dealing with the customer, that the cake be fresh,” adding: “I do not focus on profit as much as I care about the customer’s happiness, so I bring the most expensive materials from Creams and fillings, which are expensive given my situation, and I stay away from commercial cake making materials that are bought in stores.” “Difficult circumstances can make a person creative in expressing his energies, so we must not keep our hobbies hidden in neglect as a result of our preoccupation with life. The more we can create an entity of our own, the happier we will be with what we offer,” she concludes her speech to us, offering advice to other women.
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