| I first met Hemu Basu six years ago when she made a birthday cake for my friend's son. It was the cutest cake I'd ever seen- three tiers of jungle-themed decorations complete with adorable cartoonish animals made from fondant. It tasted as good as it looked, which I found equally impressive. I didn't know it then, but Basu was only three years into her baking journey when she made that unbelievable cake. She's self-taught, too, and runs her business out of her home. If you'd told me then that Basu would go on to be one of the top bakers in the world, I would have believed you-- her ability to craft an edible lion with cuddly features was phenomenal even then-- but I was still thrilled when she made her television baking debut on the Food Network in 2020. Her first-ever foray into the televised baking arena earned her a sweet victory prize of $50,000. She's since competed in multiple competitions. Her latest challenge, Food Network's "Holiday Baking Championship," also came with a generous victor's purse. Basu's team won the show's "naughty or nice"-themed bake-off with their "Pranking the Babysitter" cake and brought home $10,000. I love writing stories about Katy residents doing amazing things. It's especially heart-warming to me when I meet them before their fame, just by being a Katy resident myself, doing things like going to a kid's birthday party, and then later having the privilege of writing about them. Check out my story on Basu's cake victories, and let me know what you think. Do you know any Katy residents that are doing amazing things? Fill me in at claire.goodman@chron.com. | 
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