Klojen (malangkota.go.id) – The euphoria ahead of the Chinese New Year celebration has been increasingly felt in recent times. This can be seen from the increasing demand for basket cakes ahead of Chinese New Year. This basket cake is one of the typical foods for the Chinese New Year celebration. This cake made from glutinous rice flour and sugar is called basket cake because it is molded in a basket-shaped container.
Basket cake is also popularly known as Chinese dodol. In Mandarin, this cake is called nián gāo (年糕) or tiⁿ-kóe (甜棵) in Hokkien. This basket cake is full of meaning, this cake which has a chewy and sticky texture means that the family celebrating Chinese New Year can continue to be united, harmonious and determined in facing the coming year.
Malang City's basket cake producer, Sonia Winoto, said that ahead of Chinese New Year, demand for basket cakes is increasing.
A resident of Jalan Sutan Syahrir Gg. Kesatria, Sukoharjo Village, Klojen District, Malang City, said that she had been flooded with orders since three weeks before the Chinese New Year celebration. Because of the high number of orders, Sonia admitted that she had closed the orders for the basket cake.
It is no wonder that Sonia's basket cake is different from the usual. Sonia modifies traditional cakes with contemporary flavors with various shapes and sizes of one bite.
"There are quite a lot of orders this year. It's already fully booked until January 22. I'm also temporarily closing orders for catering because I have to work on this basket cake order," said the owner of Banana Leaf catering.
This woman of Chinese descent said that at first she did not like basket cakes because they were usually too sweet. But then Sonia tried to make basket cakes and succeeded. Finally, since 2018, Sonia has started receiving orders for basket cakes.
“At that time, contemporary flavors were trending, such as taro, red velvet, green tea, and others. Then I tried to make them using those flavors. It turned out to be delicious, and definitely not too sweet. I made them small because I often got those big basket cakes, but they were always not finished, there were always leftovers. Finally, I made them in small sizes so that I could eat them all at once. So it’s more convenient, right?” said the graduate of the Culinary Business Department at a private university in Surabaya.
The packaging of Sonia's basket cake also has a neat packaging so it is very suitable to be used as a Chinese New Year hamper. The price of one pack of basket cake containing 25 cakes is sold starting from IDR 40.000,00 with sales turnover every Chinese New Year reaching IDR 15.000.000.
For marketing her contemporary basket cakes, Sonia revealed it through social media. And it turns out that her marketing strategy is quite effective, because orders come not only from Malang City. Sonia admitted that orders for her basket cakes also come from outside the city such as Surabaya, Purwokerto, Jakarta, Tangerang, and even outside the island such as Kalimantan. (ari/yon)
