Growing BMD Without Losing Its Soul

Yasmeen Jisri never set out to build a dessert empire. In fact, when Bake My Day, better known as BMD, began in 2014, the idea was far more personal. She simply wanted to make the kind of cookie she actually wanted to eat.

More than a decade later, that personal craving has evolved into a recognisable dessert brand, a loyal customer community and a growing regional business. What began from a home kitchen has now reached a significant new chapter, with Bake My Day expanding into Saudi Arabia and establishing its first presence in Riyadh.

For Yasmeen, however, expansion is not simply about opening in new markets. Her focus remains on something much more fundamental: making sure growth never comes at the expense of the qualities that made people fall in love with BMD in the first place.

A Craving That Became a Business

The story of Bake My Day began after Yasmeen returned from studying in the UK. She had developed a serious love for cookies during her time there, but returning home brought a surprising realisation.

Her friends had developed sophisticated tastes for delicate desserts, while Yasmeen still wanted something nostalgic, indulgent and comforting.

At dinner parties, she started bringing her own cookies because she wanted something on the table that genuinely appealed to her.

There was no detailed business plan behind those first batches. There was no carefully constructed food industry strategy. There was simply a woman making something she loved and sharing it with people around her.

Then social media changed everything.

People who saw her cookies began placing orders. Customers recommended them to friends. Those friends ordered again. Gradually, what had started as a personal craving began developing a life of its own.

Bake My Day’s own brand history describes the business as beginning as a home bakery in 2014, initially selling largely through WhatsApp to friends, family and customers before moving online in 2021.

The early growth was built on something difficult to manufacture through traditional marketing: genuine word of mouth.

From Home Kitchen to Recognisable Brand

Yasmeen’s journey was never simply about perfecting a cookie recipe.

In the early days, she was effectively every department of the company.

She sourced ingredients, prepared dough, baked, packaged orders, managed customers, handled finances, created social media content and photographed the products.

That experience gave her something that would later become extremely valuable as BMD expanded: an understanding of the business from the inside out.

It also meant that letting go was not easy.

As the company grew, Yasmeen had to learn how to trust a team with something that had originally been entirely hers. Maintaining the same taste, quality and emotional connection became more complicated as production grew beyond the scale of a home kitchen.

The challenge was not simply teaching people how to follow a recipe. It was teaching them how to understand what BMD was supposed to feel like.

That distinction has remained central to Yasmeen’s approach to growth.

Building a Brand Around More Than Cookies

Bake My Day eventually became known for more than individual cookies. Its signature sharing tins helped turn dessert into an experience designed around gifting, celebrations and bringing people together.

The brand’s pink packaging, indulgent creations and playful personality helped give it a visual identity that was instantly recognisable.

Its menu today includes products such as The OG, The B-Day, The Lotus, The Oreo, The Brownie, The Milo and its cookie dough sharing concepts.

The appeal is rooted in nostalgia and generosity. BMD is not positioned as a formal dessert experience that requires an occasion. Its products fit birthdays, family gatherings, office celebrations, gifts, late night cravings and the simple desire to share something sweet.

That emotional connection has helped turn customers into a community around the brand.

For Yasmeen, that community is one of the most meaningful parts of the journey.

A Major New Chapter in Riyadh

In 2026, Bake My Day entered a new stage with its first international expansion into Saudi Arabia.

The brand opened its first Riyadh locations in Al Olaya and Al Yasmeen in July, introducing Saudi customers to its signature cookies, cookie dough sharing tins and dessert range. Reports surrounding the launch also indicated plans for additional Riyadh locations as the brand develops its presence in the Kingdom.

The move represents more than another location on a map.

For a brand that began inside a home kitchen, crossing the UAE’s borders is a significant milestone. It demonstrates how a concept built around a relatively simple product can develop regional potential when it combines a strong identity with a loyal customer base.

Riyadh is only part of Yasmeen’s current focus. The next step is already taking shape, with Jeddah on the horizon as BMD continues exploring its Saudi growth.

At the same time, the brand is preparing for its first brick and mortar store in its home market, creating another important moment in its evolution.

For Yasmeen, having several major developments happening at once is exciting, but it also creates a responsibility to protect the brand’s foundation.

Growth Without Losing the BMD Feeling

The biggest challenge for Yasmeen today may not be expansion itself. It is expanding while remaining recognisably BMD.

Growth can change businesses. Larger teams, new markets, higher production volumes and different customer expectations can gradually create distance between a brand and the idea that originally made it special.

Yasmeen is determined not to let that happen.

Her current focus is on ensuring that the product, quality and feeling behind BMD continue to grow alongside the business.

It is a philosophy shaped by experience. She has already seen what happens when a small idea becomes something much bigger. She understands that scale brings opportunity, but it also demands discipline.

For her, bigger is only better when the essence of the brand survives the journey.

The Reality Behind the Entrepreneurial Story

There is another part of Yasmeen’s story that makes her journey particularly relatable.

BMD did not grow in isolation from her personal life.

The business developed during some of the most demanding years of motherhood, including pregnancy and the period when her sons were babies and required her attention around the clock.

At the same time, BMD was demanding just as much from her.

Yasmeen describes herself as deeply hands-on with both motherhood and the company. While she has support and is grateful for it, she remains personally invested in both roles.

That dual responsibility adds another dimension to her achievements.

Building a business is difficult. Raising children is demanding. Doing both while a company is growing rapidly requires an enormous amount of energy, organisation and resilience.

Yasmeen admits that she is not naturally good at stopping to acknowledge what she has accomplished.

She is usually too involved in the next task, the next challenge or the next responsibility.

Yet when she does look back, there is one achievement that stands out: she managed to build BMD while simultaneously being present for her children during their earliest years.

It is an achievement she describes with equal parts pride and exhaustion.

Yasmeen Jisri Staying Focused in a Noisy Industry

Yasmeen’s advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is surprisingly simple: stay true to yourself.

She entered the food industry without professional experience as a chef. Instead of seeing that as a limitation, she learned through curiosity, commitment and hard work.

That mindset remains relevant as BMD enters a more competitive stage.

The bigger a business becomes, the more opinions, comparisons and distractions surround it. Yasmeen believes entrepreneurs have to learn how to block out that noise and stay focused on their own path.

For her, mental discipline is as important as any business strategy.

She compares it to physical training. Just as people work to strengthen their bodies, entrepreneurs need to train their minds to remain focused when circumstances become overwhelming.

Her philosophy also includes humility and gratitude.

Success, in her view, should never make people forget the simple things that make life valuable.

One Step at a Time

Interestingly, Yasmeen does not approach the future through a rigid list of traditional long term goals.

She knows BMD has significant potential, but she also recognises how quickly circumstances can change.

Instead of trying to predict every stage of the next decade, she prefers to focus on what is immediately ahead and give it her full attention.

That approach may appear cautious, but it reflects the way BMD itself was built.

The brand was not created through a perfectly mapped journey. It grew organically, one order, one customer and one opportunity at a time.

The same philosophy now guides its expansion.

Riyadh has opened the door to Saudi Arabia. Jeddah represents another potential chapter. The development of a first brick and mortar store brings the brand closer to a new kind of customer experience.

Yet the underlying ambition remains remarkably consistent with the original idea.

Make something people genuinely love.

A Sweet Business Built on Something Real

Yasmeen Jisri’s story is ultimately less about cookies and more about authenticity.

She did not begin with industry expertise, a large operation or a traditional entrepreneurial blueprint. She began with a craving and the confidence to follow it.

That small decision created Bake My Day.

Over the years, the business grew through customer loyalty, experimentation, persistence and Yasmeen’s willingness to learn every part of the operation. It grew alongside her family and through some of the most demanding seasons of her life.

Now, as BMD moves beyond Dubai and establishes itself in Saudi Arabia, the scale of the opportunity is much larger than the home bakery she once started.

But the principle remains the same.

For Yasmeen, success is not simply about becoming bigger. It is about growing while protecting the taste, quality, personality and emotion that made people care about Bake My Day in the first place.

And perhaps that is what makes her journey worth watching.

A business that began because one woman wanted a cookie she actually loved has become a regional story of entrepreneurship, motherhood, resilience and the courage to keep building one step at a time.

Do visit her Website – Bake My Day

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