This Johorean biz opens for less than a month every year to sell Nyonya-flavoured mooncakes

For the past four years, there’s a brand that has popped up every Mid-Autumn Festival. Called Baba Nana, it’s a seasonal brand offering unique Nyonya-inspired snow skin mooncakes.

Behind Baba Nana is Ashley. For her full-time job, she works as a coworking and event space renter while also freelancing for corporate events. But around this time of the year, she juggles that with running Baba Nana.  

“Balancing Baba Nana with my day job can be challenging, especially since I often work overtime,” she admitted.

“However, my passion for Baba Nana helps me manage both commitments effectively. I truly enjoy it when people talk about Nyonya culture and loving the mooncakes that I curate and that’s mainly what keeps me going.”

Rather than seeing Baba Nana as a side hustle, she considers it to be an effort for her to share the Baba Nyonya culture of Malaysia.

Baba Nyonya influences

Baba Nana got its start in 2021 in Johor, driven by Ashley’s desire to celebrate and share Malaysia’s rich cultural heritage by blending traditional elements with contemporary tastes.

And what better avenue to express that than through snow skin mooncakes?

The flavours at Baba Nana are what makes the brand so special. They offer six flavours of snow skin mooncakes—Ang Ku Kueh, Bubur Cha Cha, Pulut Tai Tai, Ondeh Ondeh, Hainan Teh, and Nanyang White Kopi.

These treats are being sold at RM138 for a box of six.

“We wanted to honour the Nyonya heritage, which is rich in tradition and flavour,” Ashley said. “The Nyonya flavours hold personal significance as they connect us to our cultural roots and bring a unique touch to our offerings.”

These flavours have remained steadfast since the business started, with the addition of the last two flavours this year.

She shared that the recipes and formulations for their products were developed through a combination of research, experimentation, and feedback.

Additionally, her husband’s cousins are professional pastry chefs, who have provided valuable insights and expertise in Baba Nana’s confectionaries.

Baba Nana’s fillings are prepared by hand from scratch, ensuring that they have the perfect texture and flavour.

After preparing the filling, the inner part of the mooncake is then frozen for a day. Next, the team rolls out the snow skin dough, wraps it around the prepared mixture and the frozen inner part, and moulds the mooncakes into shape.

“Our production takes place in our local kitchen, where we focus on maintaining high quality and consistency,” Ashley said. “Due to the meticulous nature of the process and our production capacity, we have limited quantities of mooncakes that we can produce each day.”

Through a cold chain partner, Baba Nana distributes their mooncakes to KL and other states. Additionally, Ashley’s partner and his staff help with the distribution in the KL market, while she primarily handles the Johor Bahru market.

In spite of a slow market

Baba Nana got off to a good start from the first year, receiving plenty of positive feedback that encouraged Ashley to continue the business the following year.

“Initially, word of mouth was very effective for us,” she said. “Over time, we’ve also leveraged social media marketing to reach a broader audience and engage with our customers more directly.”

This year, however, Ashley noticed that the market has slowed down. On top of that, ingredient costs have increased. Managing rising ingredient costs and market fluctuations has become a key challenge of Baba Nana.

“My partner and I self-funded the startup, and we’ve been managing the financial challenges as best as we can,” she said. “We are focusing on sustaining our business through these tough times.”

But more than just sustaining the business, Ashley aims to invest in and grow Baba Nana into a year-round business.

“While we will continue to offer our unique mooncakes each Mid-Autumn season, we’re also exploring ways to diversify and expand our offerings throughout the year,” she elaborated.

For others who are interested in starting their own brands, Ashley has three things that she wants them to keep in mind: passion, persistence, and integrity.

“While having this project, I am not neglecting my other responsibilities and not compromising other areas in my life,” Ashley said regarding having integrity in her work.

It’s fascinating to see how this business operates for just a few weeks every year and yet still welcomes such positive reception each time it’s active.

It’ll certainly be interesting to see how Ashley and her team will be able to scale Baba Nana to a business that exists beyond the season, and into something that can cater to customers all year long.

Featured Image Credit: Baba Nana