On 23 April, Bobbie Lloyd, Magnolia’s Chief Baking Officer, returned to Dubai for the first time since the store’s initial opening in Bloomingdale’s The Dubai Mall for an exclusive cooking demonstration cooking demonstration with Executive pastry chef, Kiran Shivaram Shetty.
Lloyd has been part of the Magnolia story since it first opened in New York City’s West Village in 1996. She recalls serving clients cupcakes from the tiny village shop, which to this day entices a queue of customers waiting to buy a bite of sweetness. She has now seen the business grow to seven locations within the US and four in the Middle East. Magnolia now has a presence in Dubai, Doha, Beirut and Kuwait with Abu Dhabi opening in August.
During the cooking demo Lloyd and Shetty excited us with their expertise in baking while demonstrating the making of Magnolia’s ‘Lemon Vanilla Bundt Cake’. They gave us helpful tips and made the art of baking appear at once simple and creative. “It’s all about technique,” both Shetty and Lloyd proclaimed.
Lloyd comes from a family of bakers and reminisces how they would pick fresh blueberries to make a scrumptious homemade blueberry pie; they never brought a cake to someone’s home without it being baked to perfection.
When asked how she feels Dubai has changed since she was last here, she replied, “We have now been here for 3 years and I have been blown away on how much Dubai has changed during this time. It feels like a community. When I first came here I felt like I was on Mars, as everywhere I looked, all I could see were cranes and construction. I can now call it a neighborhood.” Lloyd has also been “blown away” by how Magnolia has been received within the Middle East and foresees many more openings across the region.
Magnolia is located in Bloomingdale’s Home in The Dubai Mall. For more information, call +971 43505440 or visit www.magnoliabakery.com.
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