CHEESECAKE CHAMP
By Chris Wadsworth
The inspiration for Kalyani Vajre’s business came from – of all things – an episode of the TV show “Friends.”
“I don’t know if you remember, but there is a cheesecake episode on ‘Friends’ where Rachel and Chandler fight over a cheesecake and the cheesecake falls on the floor and they are trying to pick it up and they keep fighting,” Vajre said. “So, I’m like you know what – I’m going to try making cheesecake.”
It was a fortuitous decision for this busy Ashburn resident, who lives in The Regency neighborhood with her husband and two sons. A longtime baker of cakes and cookies and pastries, she started experimenting with cheesecakes during the pandemic, and they were a big hit with her family and friends and neighbors.
Soon, an idea sprouted: Could she turn her cheesecakes into a business? Spoiler alert – she did, and Cheesecake Bean was born in 2021.
“When you think about a bean, you think about a bean sprout,” Vajre said. “It’s a new beginning. And that’s what Cheesecake Bean means – a new beginning with my cheesecake business.”
A professional recruiter with Salesforce by day, Vajre dove headfirst into creating her new business from the ground up. No stone was left unturned.
“I created huge spreadsheets and sent my taste-testers specific questions about my cheesecakes, based on their appearance and the texture and the freshness and the packaging,” she said. “I needed to figure it all out.”
She struck deals with area wineries to offer her cheesecakes along with their wines. This led to miniature cheesecake flights paired with wine flights, which proved popular. She started selling her cheesecakes at local farmers’ markets. She entered a contest called Dessert Wars and took sixth place in the Washington region.
And the business grew and grew.
“It is awe-inspiring for me to watch someone follow their passion and grow it into something they always wanted to do,” said Vajre’s husband, Chetan. “I grew up wanting to be an entrepreneur, but now my wife is the entrepreneur, and I am living my dream through her.”
The flavors offered by Cheesecake Bean reflect both Vajre’s childhood in India and her adult married life in Ashburn, where she moved in 2005. There are traditional South Asian flavors such as cardamom, pistachio and rose. And there are good old American flavors like red velvet, Oreo, chocolate and traditional New York style.
Helen Edem, who lives off Ashburn Road, said she never cared for cheesecake – until her husband ordered some mini cheesecakes from Cheesecake Bean.
“We fell in love with them. We get them for every birthday, every Christmas,” Edem said. “I’m a lover of chocolate and I’ve had her Nutella one and the Oreo one, but recently I tried one of the Indian ones – the gulab jamun flavor – and that has become my favorite. My husband is a peanut butter head, and he likes the Reese’s one.”
Vajre has a nice little home business going now. She did work out of a commercial kitchen, but after recently moving into a new house with two kitchens, she had one licensed for her business and bakes all her cheesecakes there.
She pays special attention to packaging – elegant blue boxes the color of robins’ eggs are a favorite for gift-givers – and she doesn’t ship her cheesecakes. Presentation is important and she can’t trust her delicate cakes to shipping services. Customers place orders and then pick them up in person.
She doesn’t see this changing.
“There’s a huge demand, but I’m able to manage my full-time work [at Salesforce] and my cheesecake business,” she said. “But I do see myself eventually retiring from my job and pursuing this full time. I’d like to open a small boutique cheesecake shop.”
And if she does, her eager customers will have Chandler and Rachel to thank for it.
READ THE BOOK
On the off chance you are interested in starting your own baking business, Kalyani Vajre literally wrote the book on it. Her tome “Bake, Brand, and Beyond” – with all the lessons she learned on her journey – is available on Amazon.
