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.