Sama­ki Fe­li­cian

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

When Joshua Singh, a 27-year-old pas­try chef from Diego Mar­tin, stepped on­to the stage at the Caribbean Bak­ing Awards 2025—Ul­ti­mate Bake Off Com­pe­ti­tion in the British Vir­gin Is­lands ear­li­er this year, he car­ried more than just tools and in­gre­di­ents. He car­ried the dreams of a young man who turned loss in­to pur­pose, chal­lenges in­to mo­ti­va­tion, and hum­ble be­gin­nings in­to re­gion­al vic­to­ry.

Rep­re­sent­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go, Singh and his team-mate Re­shard Khan took on bak­ers from 11 Caribbean na­tions. Against the clock, with just two hours to cre­ate their mas­ter­piece, the pair built a breath­tak­ing sev­en-tier cake for the com­pe­ti­tion cat­e­go­ry called Trop­i­cal Par­adise. The de­sign cel­e­brat­ed the Caribbean’s beau­ty, from its ma­rine life and wa­ter­falls to hi­bis­cus flow­ers, ex­ot­ic birds, and a float­ing par­rot soar­ing to­wards a sun­set. At the very top, Caribbean fruits like co­conuts and man­goes crowned the cre­ation.

It was the largest cake on dis­play, and it wowed the judges. Singh and Khan were crowned first-place win­ners in the Trop­i­cal Par­adise cat­e­go­ry, rep­re­sent­ing T&T to the high­est de­gree.

For Singh, it was more than a tro­phy. “It was a big win for me and for Trinidad and To­ba­go,” he re­flect­ed. “I was sur­prised, but hap­py. See­ing my hard work pay off was ex­hil­a­rat­ing.”

Singh’s sto­ry be­gins in Diego Mar­tin, where he grew up in a mod­est house­hold with two sib­lings, Saman­tha and Justin Singh. His fa­ther, Anil Singh, worked as a maxi dri­ver and car­pen­ter, while his moth­er, Peg­gy Singh, stayed home to raise the fam­i­ly. Watch­ing his fa­ther’s tire­less work eth­ic taught him the im­por­tance of hus­tle and de­ter­mi­na­tion.

Though he was al­ways around the kitchen, Singh’s first love was cook­ing, not bak­ing.

At St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege, he stud­ied busi­ness, with dreams of work­ing at a bank. Cook­ing was nev­er pushed as a ca­reer path un­til his grand­fa­ther Pooran Singh en­cour­aged him to pur­sue his pas­sion. He was es­pe­cial­ly close to his grand­fa­ther, who pledged full fi­nan­cial sup­port for his school­ing.

But be­fore Singh could be­gin his culi­nary stud­ies, tragedy struck. His grand­fa­ther passed away. Heart­bro­ken but de­ter­mined, Singh pressed for­ward us­ing mon­ey his grand­fa­ther had al­ready set aside for his ed­u­ca­tion. When ad­mis­sions for culi­nary stud­ies had closed, Singh opt­ed for bak­ing and pas­try arts in­stead, see­ing it as a step­ping stone to the culi­nary world.

That de­ci­sion be­came life-chang­ing. While study­ing for his diplo­ma, Singh turned to YouTube to sharp­en his skills. He baked for fam­i­ly, then for friends, and soon or­ders came pour­ing in by word of mouth. What be­gan as prac­tice evolved in­to a thriv­ing busi­ness called Josh­Cakes, which even helped him pay his tu­ition dur­ing his fam­i­ly’s fi­nan­cial strug­gles.

His men­tors, in­clud­ing lec­tur­ers Ja­son Vance and Swasti­ka Bharat, guid­ed his craft. Out­side of the kitchen, in­spi­ra­tion came from an un­like­ly source, in­ter­na­tion­al rap star Nic­ki Mi­naj.

“She came from Trinidad and To­ba­go and be­came the high­est-sell­ing fe­male rap­per in the world,” Singh ex­plained. “That showed me if she could do it, I could too. Where you come from doesn’t stop you,” he said. When the op­por­tu­ni­ty arose to en­ter the Caribbean Bak­ing Awards, Singh knew it would de­mand sac­ri­fice. Bal­anc­ing com­pe­ti­tion prep with Josh­Cakes’ heavy or­der book was tough, but his par­ents stepped in to help him gath­er re­sources. For the artis­tic el­e­ments of the cake, he en­list­ed long-time friend Re­shard Khan, who used his art back­ground to de­sign in­tri­cate de­tails de­spite lim­it­ed bak­ing ex­pe­ri­ence.

To­geth­er, they de­liv­ered un­der im­mense pres­sure and walked away cham­pi­ons.

Now, Singh wants his sto­ry to light a path for oth­ers, es­pe­cial­ly young men.

“I want to in­spire peo­ple, men and women, that if you love cook­ing or bak­ing, you can go far. Don’t let chal­lenges stop you.”

His per­son­al mantra is sim­ple: “Be bet­ter than who you were yes­ter­day.”

Look­ing ahead, Singh hopes to ex­pand Josh­Cakes in­to a larg­er space, hire ad­di­tion­al staff to as­sist with the busi­ness, and en­ter more in­ter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tions to put Trinidad and To­ba­go on the glob­al bak­ing map. He al­so wants to men­tor young bak­ers, just as oth­ers helped guide him.

From a young boy watch­ing his fa­ther hus­tle, to a bak­er car­ry­ing his grand­fa­ther’s lega­cy, to a Caribbean cham­pi­on, Joshua Singh is proof that per­se­ver­ance, pas­sion, and pur­pose can rise high­er than any tiered cake.