Sweet dreams

Life is a piece of cake. This saying is literally and figuratively taken by sisters Penk Ching and Shen Ratilla. After all, Penk and Shen are the body, heart and soul behind Pastry Bin, the bakeshop that has witnessed many an important milestone in people’s lives.

While many things have been written about their sugary creations, Penk and Shen’s story as to how they discovered their knack for baking is another worthwhile story to be told.

“Everything that’s happening to Pastry Bin now began with passion,” Penk begins.

“It began with our passion for eating,” Shen adds. They are adventurous eaters, something that they learned from their parents. “We eat everything, including crickets, snakes and even scorpions.” But no matter what they put in their mouths, it has always been the sweet sensation that they crave for ever since they were small.

When they were kids, when putting up one’s own home bakeshop was still unheard of, Penk and Shen dreamt of owning one. So, they launched their juvenile dream in their kitchen at home. Armed with the perfect ingredients, the sisters still did not get their perfect cookie or cake. Never mind, they said. They had parents and cousins who were more than willing to eat their creations  even if they were as “hard as a sapatos (shoe).” Once, their mother remarked to them: “It’s easier to buy a cake than to make one.” But Penk and Shen had a stubborn dream of having their own bakeshop at home. Their “hard cakes” all the more solidified their bond as sisters. They were so close and driven that they decided to make their own “newsletter,” which they called “News Crumbs,” distributed only to their whole family.

Penk and Shen were born to Chinese parents (natives of Fujian province who settled in the Philippines in the 1930s) who put premium on education. Even when they were kids, summer time for the sisters was spent learning arts and crafts among other activities. They observed no idle time. At home, because they had no brothers, their father treated them like boys. So, when needed, they also helped in plumbing and carpentry works at home. Later on, the sisters realized their training from their parents prepared them for what awaited them outside their home.

More than anything else, Penk and Shen were raised to be there for one another. They were taught how to care for each other, even to their youngest sister Shelen, who has special needs.

When Penk went to pursue BS Commerce at the University of Santo Tomas (where she was recently honored as one of the outstanding alumni at UST’s quadricentennial celebration), Shen followed her to the same school to take up BA Behavioral Science. Since education was a priority, the two continued to hunt further studies abroad. Penk enrolled at the Arthur D. Little Management Education Institute in Massachusetts and finished her MS in Management Degree. She also went to Columbia University in New York for her post-graduate studies in Economics. Shen, on the other hand, went to Washington DC to finish her MBA at the George Washington University.   

Both worked for banks in the Philippines after pursuing higher education. In between  because the two sisters couldn’t just simply let go of making their perfect cake  they took up baking lessons. Shen took up baking from Grace Mercado and the lessons she learned from her, she taught to Penk. They also took a course on cake decorating under Avelina Florendo. They also attended classes conducted by Henny Sison. Then the sisters met Lilia Gutierrez, “the country’s first food stylist,” whom Penk and Shen consider to be their mentor.

When the sisters formally put up Pastry Bin in 1987, Penk went on full-time with their home bakeshop while Shen maintained her day job at a multinational bank where she is now a regional leadership development program manager.

“Shen and I respect each other. We give each other spaces. We encourage and motivate each other. We debate constructively but we also support each other,” Penk says, adding that part of their bonding moment is engaging themselves in extreme sports. Penk’s favorite activities include rappelling, parasailing and doing the zipline while Shen’s ultimate source of outdoor joy is doing the 20-km fun run. 

Shen adds: “Penk is the creative one. She can think of the designs on the fly and sketch them. While for me, the logistics part comes naturally. My concerns include how the cake will be delivered, making sure we have enough resources to make a cake among other things.”

Back then, the sisters were already feeling triumphant that they now knew how to make their perfect cake. They didn’t realize that the perfect break would come when they were given the opportunity to be the cake supplier of Kit and Fernando Zobel on their wedding day in the early ‘90s. Since then, almost all high society weddings or high-caliber occasions become almost incomplete without a cake by Penk Ching and Shen Ratilla of Pastry Bin. 

“We love to deal with challenges. We face our challenges  we thrive not just survive and move on. Hindi kami umuurong sa responsibilidad,” Penk says of their secret to success.

“Our parents taught us to have determination and to be responsible. We know how to live up to our commitments because we were told early on by our parents that it is important to walk the talk,” Shen shares.

What’s their dream project?

“To make the wedding cake of Prince William and Kate Middleton,” the sisters chorus as they laugh.

Well, if they were able to make the inaugural cake of President Noynoy Aquino and the Bird’s Nest cake for the Beijing Olympics, making a royal cake is not next to impossible.

After all, Penk and Shen are passionate dreamers. That’s how they started making their sugary creations  through their sweet, sweet dreams.

(For your new beginnings, please e-mail me at bumbaki@yahoo.com. I’m also on Twitter @bum_tenorio. Have a blessed Sunday!)