Genevieve Kashat has been baking nearly her whole life. In 2020, she became a small business owner, and just two years later the 11-year-old from Troy took her talents to television on Season 11 of The Food Network’s Kids Baking Championship.
Baking since the age of three, this has been a long-time dream for Kashat. Inspired by her mother’s delicious banana bread recipe, Kashat would bring her plastic cooking supplies to the counter and work alongside her. As her skills improved, she began making cupcakes for her church, and by the age of seven, she was trying eclairs, cream puffs, cinnamon rolls, and cookies.
After discovering a YouTube video of a pastry chef making macarons, the young baker took her ideas in a new direction, and when the pandemic hit in 2020, Kashat was given a unique opportunity.
The combined access to YouTube baking videos and time at home allowed Kashat to begin perfecting her recipes. The more she practiced, the more creative she felt, and the more she wanted to experiment. She would launch her small business, Gen’s Kreations in late 2020, when she was just nine years old.
According to Kashat, the inspiration for her business came when her aunt was having some friends over and she shared what she had been working on. Her macaron recipe is what got the ball rolling.
“[My aunt’s] friends asked, ‘are you selling these? I really want some!’ and so I started selling them!” she says.
Kashat’s aunt has since joined a convent and aids an orphanage in Iraq – where Kashat now sends a portion of her proceeds.
“I used to do different orphanages every month, but my aunt just went into the convent – the one that helped me start my business – and became a nun. They run an orphanage in Iraq, and I just really wanted to support her, so 10 percent of every order goes to the orphanage,” she says.
Gen’s Kreations sells macarons, cupcakes, and cocoa bombs, along with cakes, cookies, and cheesecake cups — though Kashat says, “if there’s anything else anyone wants me to make, I’ll for sure make it because I love experimenting.”
With Gen’s Kreations well under way, Kashat took her talents to the next level after being messaged on social media and encouraged to apply for Kids Baking Championship.
In 2022, Kashat was one of 12 young bakers selected for Season 11 of Kids Baking Championship, Biz Kids. Hosted by Duff Goldman and Valerie Bertinelli, Kids Baking Championship is a ten-week competitive reality baking program featuring young bakers from the age of 10-13. Season 11 was devoted to uplifting child entrepreneurs in the baking world.
Kashat was the first Chaldean girl on the show and even celebrated her 11th birthday while filming. She would go on to finish as a semifinalist and considers her time on the show a valuable learning experience.
It was “probably the funnest [sic] experience of my whole entire life,” she says. “I got to meet people that also had the same love for baking as I did, and I got to learn new techniques from them because we’re all each good at our own things.”
But while doing her own thing was fun, she says the opportunity to bake alongside other young people and test her creativity was incredible.
“I don’t think I knew how good I could be,” she said. “I feel like on this show I overreached my expectations.”
Not only did Kashat learn a lot as a baker during this experience, but her business received more attention and community support than ever before. Her website features numerous reviews from satisfied customers – many of which are families with children Kashat hopes to inspire.
In the future, Kashat hopes to keep a balance between her own hobbies while still having a fun time baking. “I want to have my own baking show like Kids Baking Championship and be a host like Duff and Valerie because I feel like that would be the coolest thing ever,” she says.
And even farther down the line, she hopes to own a professional French bakery where she can sell artisan bread and host guests in an outdoor seating area.
For more information or to purchase from her small business, Gen’s Kreations, head to genskreations.com or contact genskreations@gmail.com. Plus, find even more fun baking content on Genevieve’s social media, which her mom manages, @gens_kreations on all platforms, and watch Kids Baking Championship on Food Network GO, Discovery+, Prime Video, and Vudu.
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