At Sugarsmith, macarons aren’t simply dainty French confections anymore, they’re remodeled into miniature artistic endeavors. Hand-piped and meticulously crafted, the model’s confections function cute character designs and ingenious flavours, fascinating each youngsters 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 Good day Kitty, Kuromi, and different beloved characters—a candy bonus atop an already irresistible vary.
However it all started as a ardour mission. 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 interest
Adriana’s love affair with macarons started proper after her A Degree examination. All the time one to problem herself, she determined to bake one of the vital notoriously tough pastries for enjoyable.
To her shock, her very first batch of the fundamental, spherical macarons turned out properly. Quickly, she was experimenting with extra complicated shapes, researching methods, and creating intricate designs with distinctive flavours, shortly changing into hooked on the craft.
Whereas Adriana honed her baking expertise as a interest, 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 may mark the start of her entrepreneurial journey.
Gross sales instantly took off, and Adriana was incomes just a few thousand {dollars} a month. She fulfilled as many as 600 macarons month-to-month, with costs beginning at S$4 a chunk.
Adriana’s skill to duplicate designs with precision had additionally made her creations widespread 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 give up her job at 24 and rethink her profession path.
With encouragement from her boyfriend, she determined to provide her macaron enterprise a correct shot—this time with larger 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 accomplice, who can be a co-founder of the enterprise, observed a rising demand for Sanrio-themed macarons from clients.
With Sanrio’s robust 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 simple feat. The couple needed to submit photographs, show their consistency, and wait six lengthy months earlier than lastly receiving the licensing inexperienced gentle. Adriana additionally spent numerous hours perfecting proportions, colors, and particulars to fulfill Sanrio’s exacting requirements.
“The standard of every piece is held to an especially excessive customary—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 have to be exceptionally expert,” she defined.
It took one other few months earlier than product and advertising and marketing approvals got here by way 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 individual.
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 offered round 400 items every day, usually 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 prime performers at Takashimaya’s Meals Fiesta 2025. To maintain up with the rising demand, they’ve since expanded their industrial kitchen to spice up manufacturing capability.
Aside from this, Adriana shared that the model’s progress 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, lovable macarons.
“Many purchasers, on Google Critiques, inform us they’re price each very cent—if no more,” she stated. A scan of the opinions by Vulcan Publish reveals that many reward the craftsmanship and the style of the choices, that are additionally bigger than typical macarons.
Nonetheless, some reviewers famous that the value level is on the steep aspect. Traditional designs begin from S$4 per macaron, whereas extra intricate or Sanrio-themed creations can price as much as S$7.50 every. By comparability, world-famous Pierre Herme Paris provides macarons from S$4, and Annabella Patisserie, Singapore’s largest macaron provider, begins at S$2.50 for plain macarons.
Sugarsmith needs to show that its macarons are past simply cute
For Adriana and her co-founder, progress has at all times began with mastering their craft and making certain 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 sensible” allowed it to develop sustainably.
Wanting forward, Sugarsmith is targeted 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 actually scrumptious too.
Study extra about Sugarsmith right here.
Learn extra articles we’ve written on Singaporean companies right here.
Featured Picture Credit score: Sugarsmith
