Demand for cakes has been rising by the year due to evolving gifting trends and flourishing e-commerce. Bakery and pastry shops are popping up on every street corner, and the number of e-bakeries has jumped as the industry moves to keep in step with the fad.

More than 100 online bakery shops are delivering cakes to people’s homes, traders said. Cakes have become obligatory for various occasions like Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, weddings, anniversaries, baby showers and farewell and bachelor parties in recent years, they said.

All this has resulted in a bonanza for the bakery business. Demand for themed and decorative cakes is high, entrepreneurs said. Social media has become a popular platform for promoting and publicising products and services, said one entrepreneur. He added that it was necessary to have people skilled in making customised cakes to open a shop.

Many young entrepreneurs have been attracted to the bakery business due to the increased demand for cakes. UG Cakes, Cake Koseli and Creative Cake Nepal are among the bakery shops selling cakes online. UG Cakes opened in 2016. Business is good, and it is preparing to open another outlet next week, said co-founder Kiran Timsina. The new shop established with an investment of Rs11 million aims to deliver 100 cake orders per day, he said. The new outlet will not only provide cake services but also offer coffee and other items, he said. It takes 15 minutes to an hour to prepare a cake, he said.

“We are expanding to a new location due to space constraints,” he said. UG Cakes delivers more than 60 orders per day, he said. “UG Cakes always focuses on quality and service,” he said. UG Cakes also plans to open outlets outside the Kathmandu Valley. It offers 2,500 designs of cakes, and prices start at Rs750. Demand increases 50 percent during the wedding season, Timsina said.

E-bakery shop Cake Koseli opened for business in 2013. They had expected to deliver 30 orders daily, but now they receive more than 50 orders, said co-founder Ujjwal Pradhananga.

Decorated and themed cakes are in high demand these days, he said. Pradhananga imports the materials needed to decorate cakes from India, and buys other items locally. Prices at Cake Koseli range from Rs550 to Rs2,000 per pound. The bakery plans to expand to Pokhara in the future.

Sabin Shrestha, owner of Creative Cakes Nepal, went into business for himself in 2016 after working in a few bakery shops. There is much competition, but quality is what makes a product stand out, said Shrestha. His bakery delivered more than 350 cakes on Father’s Day.