Cookie does not crumble in Mona's hands

Cookie does not crumble in Mona's hands

Maria Endah Hulupi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A family tradition became a hobby and, later, a means of
making a living for Mona Natasuria.

The 29 year old now makes chocolate and cookies her business.

Her little shop occupies the front room of her family's house
on Jl. Ciputat Raya, South Jakarta, which used to serve as a
waiting room for her doctor father's patients. It is the showcase
for dozens of fancy chocolate candies and brightly colored
cookies, packaged in plastic bags or wooden boxes.

Mona got into the business side of things when she was still a
student at Parahyangan University in Bandung. She prepared
chocolate treats in various shapes and colors with different
fillings and sold them to other students and residents in her
neighborhood. The orders soon started flowing in.

About two years ago, Mona decided to set up a home-based
chocolate business and expanded her product line by adding
cookies, brownies and marble cakes. She supplies cookies and
chocolates to several cafes and also receives orders from buyers
who have come to know her wares by word-of-mouth.

"To tell you the truth, I was more passionate about chocolate
making and cookie decorating than baking. My older sister loves
to bake and I usually lend a hand to decorate them. But I started
wondering how I was supposed to decorate cookies if I couldn't
make them, so I learned how to bake from cookbooks," said Mona
with a laugh.

She has never taken a cooking lesson, but Mona whips up a
variety of delicious cookies, cakes, brownies and some popular
Dutch treats, all from poring over cookery books and then using
the trial and error method in order to get it right.

"Actually, baking cakes and cookies is not a new thing for me
and my family because my grandmother owned a bakery in
Purwakarta," she said.

"It was a long time ago and the bakery has been closed down
but baking and chocolate making have become part of the family
tradition. My mother loves baking and we used to help her in the
kitchen."

For her, the most special family tradition is Christmas
baking, which involves preparing delicious cakes and cookies for
the whole family. "But we also used to bake Lebaran cookies for
our housemaids' families," she added, referring to the post-
fasting month celebration.

For Christmas cookies, she makes gingerbread and Dutch
speckoelaas but decorating them is more challenging than for
other, smaller types of cookies. However, she has an advantage,
having studied calligraphy from the time she was small.

"These cookies are usually bought for gifts and gifts should
be creatively decorated," Mona explained.

Besides inheriting the old family recipes, Mona also creates
her own. Her favorite ones are chocolate or vanilla flavored
cookies.

Her cookies are decorated with colorful egg-white-based sugar,
her brownies topped with chocolate-based garnish while her cakes
are beautifully decorated with butter-based sugar.

Basically, the shapes, the decorations and the colors should
fit into a theme or occasion, like Christmas, Easter, Valentine's
Day or a birthday.

Mona also said that most of her customers were children and
she seeks inspiration by watching cartoons and other children's
programs to meet her customers' tastes.

The most popular cookie or cake decorations for children are
those that have a lot of color and include the name of the child
having the birthday. "I don't use too much sugar for decorations.
Otherwise, mothers won't allow them to eat the cookies," she
laughed.

"I remembered one day a mother ordered a birthday cake for her
three-year-old son, who was a big fan of Tarzan. Although I've
seen the film, I decided to go to a bookstore to buy the book. I
drew the character on paper first before decorating the cake. I
rarely draw faces."

Whenever she receives special orders, she always tells the
customers that she can make what they want. "...and then I do my
best to fulfill it and usually I can do it."

Most of the ingredients she uses are local products and Mona
believes others can follow her example.

"I believe people can do this if they know the techniques (of
chocolate making and cookie decorating), which are not too
complicated," she said.