DURING Hari Raya Aidilfitri, food is at the centre of most open houses, as family and friends gather to celebrate over a delicious festive fare.
This year, why not step beyond the usual assortment of traditional cakes and cookies for something a little more adventurous?
Here are three homegrown bakeries that offer something different as these businesses aim to tickle palates with delectable desserts that range from non-traditional tarts to pavlovas.
Poppy Cherry Pop
Khalisshah Iman founded her online home-based baking business in March 2019. Located in Cheras, Poppy Cherry Pop sells delicate, beautiful tarts that will tantalise the taste buds.
The 30-year-old graduate from the YTL School of Hotel Management worked with JW Marriot KL for five years before turning her passion into a tarts business.
Her creations come in a diverse range of exciting flavours and shapes, including hearts and monograms.
A wide variety of flavours are available, including lotus biscoff, classic key lime with passion fruit filling topped with buttercream, rich Valhorna chocolate with layers of hazelnut pralines with Guanaja ganache.
Her online business started getting noticed after the launch of her signature lotus biscoff tart.
“Our tart menu remains unchanged but we have expanded our offerings to include cakes, cookies and eclairs. We are also now offering catering services for events, including weddings and corporate functions. Additionally, for each festive season, we create a specially curated menu that highlights classic seasonal flavours and designs to celebrate the occasion,” said Khalisshah.
Brown & Sugar
It is an all-female affair at Brown & Sugar, with co-founder and creative director Syainim Ghazali, cake artist Liyana Ghazali and executive chef Sakinah Ibrahim making its core team.
Scrolling down the Brown & Sugar website, foodies will not be able to stop admiring the beauty, creativity and artistry of the cakes and pralines.
Its creations are a beautiful combination of art and craft that would make one stop and admire its colour palette, design and all the effort that goes into making these mouth-watering desserts.
Brown & Sugar makes gorgeous acrylic-painted designer cakes, tree cakes, elegant rectangle or round pralines with paintings, custom cupcakes, mini cupcakes, doughnuts, along with madeleine, macaron and choux towers.
For Raya, its Lebaran 2025, featuring an array of gift boxes, cookies, pralines and more, is a feast for the eyes as well as tummies.
Pleasure Pastry
Farah Azrooein Ghazali was just 19 years old when she started her online pastry business on Instagram. Pleasure Pastry churns out pavlovas, brownies and burnt cheesecakes, with the marshmallowy pavlova being a crowd favourite.
Farah has whisked up a bite-sized version of the delectable meringue desserts, which is named after a Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. The 29-year-old baker claimed the secret behind her melt-in-the-mouth pavlovas lies in the fact she uses only premium ingredients.
These days, the diploma holder in patisserie from Berjaya University College has expanded her repertoire, making cakes and cookies.
“For Ramadan, my hot selling items are the semperit and sea salt cookies,” she said.
This Raya, why not give these homegrown businesses a try and add something different to the dessert table?
