Four-year-old Shiya Minhas lived her dream of being a baker by baking a Barbie cake at a bakery in Calgary Aug. 17.
“It’s been very good today, I liked baking,” she said.
Chestermere residents Shiya and her mom Loni Minhas spent the day at the Cake Bake Shoppe Inc. in McKenzie Towne in Calgary after they won the You Can Be Anything contest.
The contest was geared towards girls ranging from three to eight-years-old and saw them uploading pictures to Facebook of them dressed in their career of choice with the prize being a day experience in that career.
“We had over 200 entries and we had the difficult task of selecting four lovely little girls to live out their dreams,” said Mattel Brand and Communications Manager Akram Sharkawy.
He said that Barbie has always aimed to show young girls that they can be anything they can imagine. This contest was designed to continue to encourage this message.
Judging the contest was a challenge said Sharkway however Shiya’s enthusiasm in her entry photo set her apart.
“Shiya’s smile and enthusiasm and she was just really, really excited I think her mom Loni did a fantastic job in just capturing her in that career of choice,” he said.
Shiya loves everything Barbie and helping her parents in the kitchen.
“Because when you’re very tall sometimes you forget about baking,” said Shiya when she explained why she chose baker as her career dream.
“She just loves to help in the kitchen,” said Minhas.
Minhas helped her daughter enter the Facebook contest, by helping Shiya to bake cupcakes and get dressed up in a chef’s hat and apron.
“We had a busy day and we almost didn’t make the contest,” said Minhas.
After uploading the photo to the Barbie Facebook page in early May, the pair were excited to see that Barbie had liked the photo.
“We were super excited when we saw that Barbie liked our picture, that was enough for us and then to see that Barbie posted on our picture that we won a few days later…the hard work paid off,” said Minhas.
Shiya was one of four girls chosen across Canada. The other career experiences chosen were doctor, firefighter and pilot.
Minhas said that her daughter was thrilled to find out she had won.
“She was pretty excited just to win,” said Minhas.
For her career experience Shiya was welcomed into the Cake Bake Shoppe to bake and decorate a Barbie cake with owner Tanya Pridge.
“We made a Barbie cake,” said Shiya, “We stirred it and then we put icing.”
“We’re having a lot of fun, I think we should do this everyday,” said Pridge, “It’s really fun teaching children how to make cakes and cupcakes.”
“I haven’t baked any cakes before,” said Shiya, “I like baking cakes.”
Minhas said her daughter has had an amazing time with the staff at the bakery.
“I think it’s been a wonderful experience I was teary eyed a few times watching her be involved,” she said.
