More recently, a number of women members in Son Tra District, Da Nang started business with making traditional Vietnamese cakes, meeting the growing demand from consumers nationwide and accepting their orders. 

Ms. Tran Thi Minh Tuyen introduces colourful ‘su se’ cakes at the 2022 startup idea contest launched by the Son Tra District chapter of the Da Nang Women's Union. Photo: HOANG HIEP

‘Su se’ (yellow-coloured wedding pastries) is a type of cake often used on the occasion of weddings. However, today sees many people order ‘su se’ cake to make it among offerrings to the altar on holidays, at Tet and special anniversaries or to treat relatives and friends on birthdays, festivals, meetings and exchanges as a way to enjoy delicious, attractive flavours and full of good traditional cultural values of the nation.

Realising the great public demand for ‘su se’, during the days when the whole Da Nang population complied with the municipal administration-mandated ‘stay-at-home’ order in a bid to fight against the COVID-19 outbreak in August 2021, Ms. Tran Thi Minh Tuyen, a resident at 27 Dinh Le, Man Thai Ward, Son Tra District took all kinds of flour and raw materials to practice making multi-coloured ‘su se’ cakes according to a new method she created by herself.

Instead of using coconut leaves to make a mold and wrap the cake, Ms. Tuyen uses a round box as a mold, then steams the cake and wraps it with specialised food wrap. Thanks to that, the beauty of the cake is eye-catching and highly attractive.

After a period of making ‘su se’ cake as gifts for her relatives and friends, in tandem with adjusting ingredients, Ms. Tuyen has received many orders of ‘su se’ through the social network Zalo.
Many customers ordered ‘su se’ cakes, along with sticky rice and jelly products featuring 5 eye-catching colours.

At most one month ago, on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month, Ms. Tuyen and her relatives made a big batch of over 1,100 colourful ‘su se’ cakes to serve the needs of customers for celebrating the Mid-year Festival, also known as the Parasite-Killing Festival or ‘Tet Doan Ngo’ in Vietnamese.

Ms. Tuyen said, “The cake has a short shelf life, so when the time comes, I will continue to beef up thepopularity of ‘su se’ through marketing channels, especially social networks for customers to order products in an effective manner.

At the same time, heed will be paid to enhancing the quality of products so that customers can fully enjoy both the colour and taste and the fine traditional cultural values of the country.
Ms. Tuyen's group of five-coloured sticky rice and jelly products won the consolation prize in the recant contest ‘Start-up ideas in 2022’ organised by the Son Tra District chapter of the Da Nang Women's Union.

The contest featured 8 startup ideas, including 4 ones from making traditional cakes. Prominent among them was the start-up idea of applying automatic production lines in the production of biscuits and bread lines of the Phu Ong Bakery brand owned by Mrs. Dinh Nguyen Hoang Thu residing in An Hai Dong Ward, Son Tra District won the second prize.

In particular, on the boxes of ginseng and coconut cookies are printed with drawings, biographies and short stories about Trung Sisters, Buddha Emperor Tran Nhan Tong and Vietnamese fairy tales.

“Through cakes, we aim to develop a Vietnamese bakery brand with good quality, offer more choices to customers, and convey a message reminiscent of the nation's culture and history as well as promoting to international tourists in tourism hubs across the country.

Not only does the application of modern production line technology to produce cakes help to increase productivity, size and quality of cakes stably and regularly, but it also partly reduces costs and production time," said Ms. Dinh Nguyen Hoang Thu.

Chairwoman of Son Tra District Women's Union chapter Tran Thi Phuong Mai informed that women in the district have brought about a lot of start-up ideas to develop the family-run businesses and contribute to creating jobs and income for many people.

To encourage women to take the entrepreneurship spirit, relevant agencies across the district have organised many startup idea contests and activities to make the debut of startup products.

The above-mentioned activities have created opportunities for women who come up with startup ideas, and at the same time exchanging experiences in production and management in an effort to seek new consumer markets, build brands for their products, thereby contributing to the successful implementation of national goals on enterprise development.

Reporting by HOANG HIEP – Translating by A.THU