Passionate about eye-catching and creative 3D floating flower art mooncakes, the owner of 9X in Hanoi is determined to turn her passion into work and bring products closer to customers.
After 2 years of being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, this year’s moon cake market has become somewhat vibrant again. Besides traditional products, customers also have many other options such as handmade moon cakes, premium moon cakes, or even more unique: art moon cakes.
Le Hang (born in 1991) – the owner of a moon cake brand with 3D floating flower art – has 5 years of seniority in this field. In 2017, she started to practice decorating moon cakes after joining groups specializing in baking on Facebook. This passion has since turned into work.
“At first, it was just my personal preference. With the support of family and friends, I thought of starting a mooncake art business. I want everyone to have beautiful 3D mooncakes to enjoy. take it away, give it away,” Hang shared.
Ms. Le Hang – who started her business from the passion of selling 3D floating flower art moon cakes
For the first time producing artistic mooncakes, and having never had any business experience, Ms. Hang faced many difficulties. Her first batches of cakes looked rather clumsy. It is not easy to produce large quantities of cakes in a short time.
“Fortunately, I also learned how to make basic cakes, and worked hard to tinker with the art of mooncakes online, so it wasn’t that bad ,” said the 9X owner.
According to Ms. Hang, making 3D art cakes is 5-7 times more difficult than traditional cakes. The especially important stages such as color matching, molding textures, decoration,… all have to be done manually. Not to mention, the cake uses natural vegetable powder to color, so it has to be baked many times at low temperature to keep the delicious taste.
“There are already a lot of traditional bakeries on the market. Therefore, I want to bring a new line of cakes for people to buy to eat or give as gifts,” said Ms. Hang. “Artistic mooncakes are colorful, suitable for the festive atmosphere, so everyone loves them” .
javascript:void(0)
After more than 2 years of selling online, the 9X owner finally reached her dream of opening a real store. According to Ms. Hang, her greatest success is creating a product that is loved and accepted by everyone, as well as creating more jobs for students.
The sales period is from mid-June to the end of the Mid-Autumn Festival, but Ms. Hang had to prepare materials, facilities and labor from 4 months before. There are days, she and the staff have to stay up from 7 a.m. the day before until 4 a.m. the next morning to keep up with large orders.
At peak times, Ms. Hang’s bakery can produce up to 1,000 pieces/day, serving both retail and corporate customers. Cakes also have familiar fillings such as mixed, red beans, lotus seeds, … or premium fillings such as cordyceps,… The price of each product ranges from 80,000-100,000 VND, slightly higher than traditional mooncakes on the market.
According to Ms. Hang, artistic moon cakes have many outstanding advantages, so customers do not hesitate to spend a large amount of money to buy them. Not only has a more fancy, interesting and luxurious appearance, but the cake also uses vegetable powder to create natural, healthy color.
The only disadvantage of the art moon cake is that the preservation time is quite short, only 7-10 days, and must be kept in a cool place. Therefore, it is difficult for customers to transport cakes long distances.
Talking about the competition, the 9X owner is quite confident in her product.
“Due to great customer demand, many places also flock to make art moon cakes. However, my brand pays great attention to investment in product form and quality, so customers still trust me. and non-stop support” , Ms. Hang said.
In the not-too-distant future, Hang wishes to bring her “brainchild” to other provinces across the country.
“I really want to expand the brand, but this depends on the human factor. Making moon cakes art requires workers with technique, aesthetic eye and perseverance ,” she said.
“Maybe in a few years, when I train more hard-working employees, I will expand to other markets, such as Ho Chi Minh City.”
Photo: Internet