"Your greatness is not what you have, but in what you give," goes a quote from author Alice Hocker.

Kalyani Appukutty runs the Higher Taste Bakery- a successful business baking delicious vegan and vegetarian cakes and cupcakes, but that has not stopped her from giving back to the society.

She donates half the profit from her business to help purchase groceries for families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown, reported Free Malaysia Today (FMT).

Kalyani was flying high as a flight attendant with Malaysia Airlines for 24 years, until some health issues grounded her.

She then started dabbling in charity work with the No Food Waste Ranger, an organisation that gathers and distributes groceries and other essentials to the needy. She used to bake up to 300 cupcakes and other sweet treats for underprivileged children then.

When the pandemic hit, she started to prepare and distribute grocery packs to families impacted by the lockdown instead.

"Of course, finances became an issue but a couple of friends encouraged me to start my own baking business and use the profits to sustain my charity work," she told the portal in recalling how she founded The Higher Taste Bakery.

According to Kalyani, baking has always been a passion of hers, "something I've been doing my whole adult life."

Kalyani's delicious cakes and cupcakes are made with unrefined sugar, multigrain flour, and whole-wheat flour. Some of her most sought after products are black forest cake, carrot walnut cream cheesecake, and vanilla cake with strawberries, while the bestseller is the vegan chocolate fudge mousse cake.

Her cakes are so sinfully delicious that even diabetics love them, she quipped.



With the profits from the baking business, coupled with public donations, Kalyani and het team have thus far been able to provide grocery packs to 1,385 families. These packs, comprising essentials like 10kg of rice, sugar, dhal, mee hoon, cooking oil and biscuits, among others, can help sustain a family for two weeks, she said.

The Indian Truckers Club assists Kalyani in distributing the packs to needy families living in low-cost flats in Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya, and other areas in Selangor.

She also gets help from No Food Waste Ranger in screening the families that seek aid before they are included in the list of recipients. This is because there had been cases where some families have received aid multiple times, and then gone on to sell the groceries to others, to make quick money.

It is quite a feat juggling her baking business with her charitable efforts, Kalyani admitted.

However, she is not willing to throw in the towel yet, as the "reward" from her current endeavours is "priceless", she said.

"I find happiness and satisfaction when I see grateful smiles of those we help, and my customers."

Kudos to you Kalyani! If you would like to try the delicious cakes or cupcakes from her bakery, while doing your part for charity, you can check out her Facebook and Instagram pages, or WhatsApp her at 019-3299413.

The Higher Taste Bakery currently delivers to Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, and Seremban.


Source& Photo source: FMT