Welcome!
Hello! My name is Maryam, but you can call me MK, and I’m absolutely thrilled to welcome you to Cakes by MK! 😃
I love to bake, and I’m so excited to share straightforward, from-scratch, and quality-tested recipes that help you bake confidently and create delicious treats to share with your loved ones.
Cakes by MK has come a LONG way since it first started, and it’s been such a fun (and sometimes pretty crazy!) journey getting here. What began as a little home-based cake business has grown into a YouTube channel and recipe blog where I get to share my love of baking with all of you!
Youtube Weekly Videos
As of today, Cakes by MK is made up of two main parts, YouTube and the blog!
Blog Weekly Uploads
There have been plenty of unexpected twists and turns along the way, from viral videos and exciting milestones to navigating health challenges and welcoming a new little member to our family. So, I thought it would be fun to take you back to where it all began and share a little behind-the-scenes look at how Cakes by MK became what you see today. ☺️
2020: Where It All Began 🎂
After spending a year abroad, my husband, Zakariyya, and I returned to New Zealand ready to start our own businesses. Zakariyya is a maths teacher by trade, so he started his own tutoring business, while I wanted to do something on the creative side. I’d always loved baking, so Cakes by MK started as a home-based bespoke cake business!
As much as I LOVED making cakes, though, it was a lot of hard work. I wanted to explore something a little more flexible, and we’d always been intrigued by YouTube. Zakariyya encouraged me to take the leap and give it a go, and that’s how my YouTube journey began!
Back then, my videos were all about cake decorating tutorials rather than the recipes you see on the blog today. My very first video was actually my sugar sheet recipe, which ended up going VIRAL! I definitely didn’t expect that when I first started, but it was such an exciting way to kick things off!
2022–2023: A New Chapter! 🎉
If you’ve been following me since the early days, you might remember that I disappeared for a little while around this time. I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, which took a pretty big toll on my body. Between managing my health and juggling cake orders alongside filming and editing YouTube videos, things were becoming a LOT to manage!
I decided to take a leap of faith and focus on YouTube full-time, which was a much better fit for my health, too. Towards the end of 2022, I launched the Cakes by MK recipe blog, where I could share written recipes with all the tips and details to help you recreate them at home.
2023 was a HUGE year! The blog started growing rapidly, and I even became a Raptive partner site sooner than I’d imagined. It was such an exciting milestone, and seeing more of you making and sharing my recipes was so rewarding. I couldn’t have done it without all of you who watched my videos, visited the blog, and supported Cakes by MK. ❤️
2024–2025: Growing Our Team ❤️
By 2024, Cakes by MK was continuing to grow, and Zakariyya’s tutoring business was growing, too. We were both working seven days a week, and life was getting pretty hectic!
We’d been talking about hiring people to help with our businesses, but after lots of discussion, we decided on something a little different. Zakariyya would officially join Cakes by MK!
Although he’d been supporting me behind the scenes from the very beginning, this was the year he officially became part of the team. And honestly, I was SO excited to have him on board!
These days, Zakariyya takes care of a lot of the behind-the-scenes work, including the technical side of things and helping with filming prep. And, of course, his favourite job of all… the dishes!
Having him as part of the team has made such a difference, and it’s been really special getting to build this little business together.