Working with fishes during the day and spending his spare time with baking, big&crinkly is the escape and experimental space for youthpreneur David Relex to channel his creativity and interest for baking.
For him, the homegrown brand was created as a curiosity outlet, a place where people can experiment with baking and content creating.
The 26-year-old is a biologist working as an I-Ready Project Officer and he often feels that he could not utilise the creative part in him. With the platform, he can finally have a space to call his own.
This gives him a sense of satisfaction since he never had the chance to explore the field of marketing or content creating previously as he felt he did not have enough to show.
“At big&crinkly, I create bakes based on marketing or promotion ideas that I have, where normally it’s the other way round. Yes, it’s a bit odd, but again, big&crinkly was created to satisfy my pent-up creative energy that I never got to use,” said the 26-year-old.
The youthpreneur only began baking nearing the end of 2021 and it was his first time ever. For him, if a bake seems good enough to be on social media, it is an acceptable marketing.
The idea of big&crinkly came during the second wave of the pandemic when most people are staying at home. It was a difficult time especially for someone who is always on the go, David realised he needed to do something.
“The idea was supported by the situation where firstly, I desperately need to do something other than work, secondly, amongst peers and friends, everyone was sending care packages to each other, and lastly, my tiktok algorithm,” said David.
One day, he came across a Bruneian baker’s TikTok account where the creator made French pastry beignets and it hit him that he could try that out.
From then on, the entrepreneur told himself that any recipes that comes up on his TikTok feed, he will try to follow them the next day.
“From beignets, to doughnuts, scones, lemon olive oil cakes, cookies and choux and a lot in between. But the last two stuck around, despite the term big&crinkly came to me when I made scones,” he added.
Initially, big&crinkly was never about business and it was just the exchange of care packages between friends.
“I named the business after the scones that I made that were big and crinkly. If you haven’t had palm sized scones, then you should follow our account to when we might put it out. And I love how I can always structure my bakes around the idea of being big or crinkly or big and crinkly. Plus, the term is always up for interpretation,” said the youth.
David runs big&crinkly on his own with occasional help from his friends and family who would advise him on what to improve every bake.
The entrepreneur considers this chapter a temporary hobby so that he does not need to feel pressured, and the venture can always be his place to escape.
At big&crinkly, they currently offer a variety of cookies and choux; the cookies are called Chonks as they are thick and palm sized.
The Chonks have a few flavours namely, walnut chocolate and dark chocolate for the classics and matcha macademia and earl gray pistachio for premium.
Meanwhile the choux are available in classic vanilla, taro, orange earl gray and lemon flavours. The bakes are priced from $4 for the cookies and up to $15 for a box of choux.
The business goes with the tagline “REMINDER: Best served with sadness” which aimed to give a feel-good mood to anyone who indulge in the sweet treats even just for a moment.
As of now, big&crinkly have been supplying to several eateries such as Olie’s Café in Seria, thecoffeepuck.kb in Lumut, and thetablespace in Kiulap.
Follow @bigandcrinkly on Instagram to see all the experimental bakes that they have in store based on the ideas that they have brewed.
This article was first published on 21 May 2022 in our Weekly Epaper issue 194 |
THE BRUNEIAN | BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
