Meet Meghana Vallurupalli | Indian Fusion Baker & Digital Media Professional

We had the good fortune of connecting with Meghana Vallurupalli and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Meghana, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I’ve always loved baking since i was a kid, and it’s always been a stress buster for me cakes & cupcakes have always been my favorite things to bake. Growing up Indian American meant that mom used to make a lot of traditional cultural foods right alongside dishes from all different cuisines. My mom loves to bake and try new recipes when she has the chance. Indian sweets are such a big part of our culture and I remember growing up that every-time we would come back from a trip to India we would always bring back packages of all our favorite sweets. During the pandemic i started to miss those traditional sweet flavors, so i took to pairing regular standard vanilla cupcake flavors with traditional Indian spices and flavors like cardamon, rose water, mango, & pistachio to make cupcakes with a twist. There’s quite a few people who make cakes with indian flavors but what i realized while researching was that not many offered an array of indian fusion inspired cupcakes in Florida. With such a niche market, it seemed like a fun passion project to keep my weekends filled doing something that’s always been really fun for me.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I make Indian Fusion cakes & cupcakes where i pair traditional cupcake flavors with indian flavors to bring back the traditional indian sweet flavors into cake & cupcake form. The thing that gets me so excited and is the source of encouragement for me is hearing from customers how about much they enjoyed my products and how it unlocks memories of home for them. Given the unique product, it’s been amazing to see people reaching out & asking for the cakes or cupcakes to be apart of big milestone moments. That’s been huge for me, to see my cupcakes be apart of peoples weddings, engagement parties, baby showers, milestone birthdays, bridal showers. To know that the things that i create get to share a moment alongside peoples milestone memories is just so fulfilling for me. The idea for this business actually started over Boba where my friend and I were talking about how much people enjoyed the fusion cupcakes & cakes that i baked for a party that i threw at my place recently. Jokingly i said, i bet there’s a market for fusion desserts that’s probably really untapped. Without even hesitating my friend said no you’re right, it’s untapped and all our friends already love the things you make so other’s will too. It started with one instagram post, that some friends shared on their stories helping me gain inital traction and i later made some social media posts about my products & business on some local foodie forums and some cultural groups. It just took off from there with 300+ people liking, sharing and commenting on the posts and flooding my Dm’s with order requests. It’s been a non-stop hustle since then balancing baking & working full time. But it’s honestly a hustle i wouldn’t trade for anything else.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Since i live in tampa, we’d spend most of the week at the beach hanging out at Clearwater Beach, or Indian Rocks beach. We’d take the dogs to fort de soto. We’d eat everywhere since we love food! From Forbici, to Oliva, and Samurai Blue for sushi, and Curry Leaves for Indian and Dio for meditteran. We’d visit the st pete pier, and check out the speakeasy Hidden Laundry in st pete and No Vancany as well. In tampa, we hit up Circos & Mandrain Heights. We’d hang out at artmature works. We’d also head to orlando and hit up some water parks like Aquatica or Universal’s Waterpark. We’d spend a fun night out in orlando at Hall on the Yard & get the best chicken wings & Ramen at Domu and stop at Gideons for a Cookie & you can’t leave orlando without getting a pettie cake from Glass Knife in Winter park!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
In my story my parents deserve quite. a bit of credit for always pushing me to do better, and to never stop chasing things that make me happy. I’d like to give a shoutout to my Mom who’s always so encouraging & gets excited about all my achievements and is always so encouraging with all my ideas and supports me endlessly no matter what i tell her. My Dad who taught me to never settle for anything less than the best, and has told me that there’s always room to grow in all areas of life and has taught me to go after opportunities that excite me. My sister who has always been a voice of encouragement throughout all my endeavors and has always shown up for me in so many ways. My best friend Bhumi who since college has always been the person who has supported me through all the highs & lows and has always celebrated all the big & little things in my life. To my best friend Vissi who has always encouraged me to try new things and has pushed me out of my comfort zone and has shown me that there’s a part of me that deserves to grow and flourish. To my first close friend in Florida Abhi, who’s always listened to all my crazy ideas and has always encouraged me to pursue every single one of them and has helped me endlessly in growing my pastry businesses and is always encouraging me & supporting me to try new things.

Instagram: @pastriesbypono

Image Credits
for the headshot image please credit: @jamieparkphoto