At 24, she left her job to promote S’pore’s 1st Sanrio-licensed macarons

At Sugarsmith, macarons aren’t simply dainty French confections anymore, they’re reworked into miniature artistic endeavors. Hand-piped and meticulously crafted, the model’s confections function cute character designs and ingenious flavours, charming each kids and adults alike.

Sugarsmith additionally occurs to be the primary and solely macaron bakery in Singapore formally licensed by Sanrio, permitting it to craft macarons formed like Hi there Kitty, Kuromi, and different beloved characters—a candy bonus atop an already irresistible vary.

However it all started as a ardour venture. We spoke with the model’s founder, 25-year-old Adriana Zheng, about how her love for baking grew right into a full-fledged enterprise.

It began as a pastime

Adriana’s love affair with macarons started proper after her A Stage examination. At all times one to problem herself, she determined to bake one of the crucial notoriously troublesome pastries for enjoyable.

To her shock, her very first batch of the essential, spherical macarons turned out nicely. Quickly, she was experimenting with extra advanced shapes, researching strategies, and creating intricate designs with distinctive flavours, shortly turning into hooked on the craft.

Whereas Adriana honed her baking abilities as a pastime, she pursued a level in Life Sciences at NUS. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, her boyfriend advised she begin promoting her creations on-line by way of Carousell and Instagram—a transfer that will mark the start of her entrepreneurial journey.

Gross sales instantly took off, and Adriana was incomes a number of thousand {dollars} a month. She fulfilled as many as 600 macarons month-to-month, with costs beginning at S$4 a bit. 

Adriana’s capability to copy designs with precision had additionally made her creations common for customized requests.

Nonetheless, balancing baking with college life wasn’t sustainable, and Adriana determined to place her aspect hustle on pause. She ultimately accomplished college and went on to work, in her phrases, an “unfulfilling yr” in pharmaceutical gross sales, which led her to stop her job at 24 and rethink her profession path.

With encouragement from her boyfriend, she determined to present her macaron enterprise a correct shot—this time with greater ambitions.

She returned to residence baking from Apr to Jul 2024, earlier than securing a central kitchen and formally incorporating Sugarsmith.

Successful over Sanrio

Having already mastered intricately piped characters, Adriana, in addition to her companion, who can also be a co-founder of the enterprise, seen a rising demand for Sanrio-themed macarons from clients.

With Sanrio’s sturdy model presence in Singapore—the model had even sparked a frenzy for limited-edition plushies at McDonald’s within the early 2000s—it appeared pure to hunt official approval to craft their very own licensed Sanrio macarons.

However securing Sanrio’s approval was no straightforward feat. The couple needed to submit images, show their consistency, and wait six lengthy months earlier than lastly receiving the licensing inexperienced mild. Adriana additionally spent numerous hours perfecting proportions, colors, and particulars to satisfy Sanrio’s exacting requirements.

“The standard of every piece is held to an especially excessive normal—not simply Sanrio’s, however ours too. As a result of every little thing is hand-piped with out moulds or machines, our crew members should be exceptionally expert,” she defined.

It took one other few months earlier than product and advertising and marketing approvals got here by means of, and by June 2025, the model launched its licensed Sanrio macarons.

On the similar time, Adriana, collectively together with her boyfriend, opened a pop-up stall at Takashimaya Meals Corridor, increasing their choices past their very own unique designs whereas offering the general public with a spot to admire their creations in particular person.

Pulling all-nighters to maintain up with demand

Since opening the pop up stall, Sugarsmith’s choices have been a success. In its first week alone, the macaron store bought round 400 items every day, typically promoting out by 3PM. Adriana recalled pulling all-nighters simply to maintain up with demand.

Although the pop-up ended simply two days in the past, its run at Takashimaya Meals Corridor was so successful that Sugarsmith ranked among the many high performers at Takashimaya’s Meals Fiesta 2025. To maintain up with the rising demand, they’ve since expanded their business kitchen to spice up manufacturing capability.

Other than this, Adriana shared that the model’s development additionally got here from investing in correct advertising and marketing to strengthen their on-line presence and appeal to extra clients—alongside word-of-mouth reward for his or her high-quality, cute macarons.

“Many shoppers, on Google Critiques, inform us they’re price each very cent—if no more,” she stated. A scan of the critiques by Vulcan Submit exhibits that many reward the craftsmanship and the style of the choices, that are additionally bigger than typical macarons.

Nevertheless, some reviewers famous that the worth level is on the steep aspect. Basic designs begin from S$4 per macaron, whereas extra intricate or Sanrio-themed creations can value as much as S$7.50 every. By comparability, world-famous Pierre Herme Paris affords macarons from S$4, and Annabella Patisserie, Singapore’s largest macaron provider, begins at S$2.50 for plain macarons.

Sugarsmith desires to show that its macarons are past simply cute

For Adriana and her co-founder, development has at all times began with mastering their craft and guaranteeing high quality earlier than scaling. “Baking macarons is a science,” she stated.

Testing the market early gave the enterprise confidence, whereas beginning lean and “scaling good” allowed it to develop sustainably.

Wanting forward, Sugarsmith is concentrated on showcasing its intricately hand-crafted macarons to much more folks.

Following its pop-up at Takashimaya, the model will quickly seem at Tampines and Jewel Changi Airport, introducing each its signature designs and Sanrio creations to new audiences.

Our dream is to showcase our macarons to the world—and to show that they’re not simply cute, however really scrumptious too.

• Be taught extra about Sugarsmith right here.
• Learn extra articles we’ve written on Singaporean companies right here.

Featured Picture Credit score: Sugarsmith