Letter from the Founder and CEO of Paper Fig Desserts

Hello there!

Thank you for sharing your interest in knowing more about me and my growing Paper Fig family. Yes, we are getting bigger and sweeter and it’s about time I will share to you as to how my story began. My story is about food, family, love all rolled into one.

We are soon launching a timeline about my journey towards growing my passion for pure, fresh and unique flavors into business but for now, let me tell you a little about it in this blog that I personally manage myself.

You may all know me as Nawal a certified foodie but did you know that I started my career in the corporate world? I was an I.T professional who worked in both Dubai and Ajman municipality before I left it to become a full time wife to a very supportive husband, mom to 3 beautiful children Khalifa, Abdulla and Mahra and an all time employee of Paper Fig Desserts.

My life before was just about my little family, I.T career and I was never really a foodie not until I got pregnant with my first son, Khalifa, when food curiosity kicked in. I learned how to cook and bake until I never stopped. About 2 years later when my second son, Abdulla, was born, I had my first travel to London with my husband and guess what? I spent my entire vacation roaming around the bakery and food lane of London! I went home from our trip with an inspired heart to explore more in the kitchen life.

I always manage to share to my family, friends and colleagues whatever I am cooking or baking, be it a pizza, bread or sweets. They all loved my creations and they all pushed me to start a home business and with the outpouring support, I eventually decided to start out a home business.

I wanted to do something sweet in small sizes thus coming up with the name Mini Treats and it was Asma Al Humrani, a talented woman who helped me create the brand logo. I started small with Mini Treats and all I did was sell cheesecake in a cupcake size together with the fruit tart that I made from scratch. It was all just a hobby and a passion to do the sweets that’s why I did not expect it to be well known brand among the locals. As my brand grew, my product portfolio grew as well. You usually see the bite sized cheesecakes in family gatherings or gifts to any events and the cake pops for wedding. It was truly a wonderful journey growing with the Mini Treats brand as I was able to turn clients into friends. There was a steady growth with the business and it made me dream to have my own central kitchen just to be able to catch up with the demand. My husband supported me since the beginning by buying me a commercial chiller at home, expanding our kitchen and he pushed me to go with my central kitchen dream. I learned about Khalifa Fund and I joined and did a proposal about my growing Mini Treats business. The application of the fund was ongoing when me and my husband decided that we need to do a re-branding since we don’t want to be limited to mini treats per se. It was also about that time that my husband and I, became business partners. I usually do my research and found the American brand Bloom Bake Shop Online and wanted a logo exactly like it so we went on to find the designers behind it. They came up with many brand proposals and when they came up with the Paper Fig brand, we immediately fell in love with the concept. I only dreamt of a central kitchen but when Paper Fig came to life, my concept changed and we wanted to come up a Sweet Retreat that would still value the core that I had with Mini Treats which is a passion of creating fresh, pure and unique flavors that is consistently good.

Fast forward to 2015, a month later when my 3^rd child, my only daughter Mahra was born when we finally opened our doors to all of you.

Thanks to Khalifa Fund, my supportive husband and business partner Ahmed, my family and friends and to you my awesome supporters for making it all happen. It was indeed an awesome 1 year for me and my growing Paper Fig family. It didn’t come without a struggle as we are a start-up business and there are still tons to learn in being a full time wife, mother and entrepreneur all at the same time.

I have a lot of things to share to you in the coming days, weeks and months to come so you can also be inspired to be the person that you are meant to be. I believe that whenever there is passion and dedication, you can make things happen.

Love,

Nawal Al Nuaimi