Girl starts business with pet bakery

Besides Ly, three employees were also busy making cakes, donuts, cookies, and flan in all kinds of eye-catching colors and bright decorations. The cakes had one thing in common: they were quite small in size because they were only for pets.

This special bakery owned by Nguyen Thi Mai Ly, 27 years old, has been in operation for 3 months but has become familiar to the dog and cat raising community in Ho Chi Minh City.

She said the idea of ​​opening a bakery for pets came to her two years ago when she realized that more and more people consider their pets as family members. "It would be more meaningful to have a cake specially made for them on occasions like anniversaries, birthdays, and gatherings," Ly said.

To start the business, Ly quit his office job and, along with two other friends, pooled capital to buy a refrigerator, oven, and baking tools. The group researched foreign pet cakes, but there weren’t many recipes to share. They had to find their own way to make them.

"The whole group consulted with dog and cat owners about their pets' eating preferences and food allergies to find suitable ingredients to make cakes," said the shop owner.

Cake was the first dish Ly tried. Instead of the usual sponge cake, she made the body from pork, chicken, tuna combined with vegetables. The cream layer was made from potatoes and cheese, then shaped like a birthday cake.

"When the first batches of cakes were baked, fortunately, the pets had no health problems within a week. People happily accepted the cakes for pets, seeing them as a unique new food," Mai Ly said.

Since then, the shop has done more research and now has about 9 types of cakes for dogs and cats. The cakes do not use sugar or salt because according to Ly, it will harm the kidneys and digestive system of animals. Some cakes that need to be sweet will use honey instead of sugar.

On this occasion, the shop also made moon cakes to sell on the market. The group spent 2 months researching the recipe, choosing ingredients suitable for the taste to create a moon cake model for pets. The moon cake collection has fillings such as mixed shrimp and meat, beef and spinach, chicken with apple sauce, pan-fried chicken with honey sauce, scallops and salmon, and steamed pork with pink guava.

"To make a product, it has to go through many stages like moon cakes for people, but it is more difficult because the ingredients are not abundant, and it must be suitable for the taste, nutrition and safety for the health of pets," said the 27-year-old girl.

The mooncake weighs 65 grams and costs 65,000 VND each. The shop currently has more than 350 orders. The best seller is the cream cake, priced from 300,000 - 600,000 VND each, depending on the size or the customer's request for ingredients. In addition, the shop has many other types of cakes such as donuts, cookies, cupcakes, bento, and flan to suit the tastes of dogs and cats.

Having known the shop for a month through social media, Truc Ngan in Thu Duc City often buys moon cakes and cupcakes for her pet dog. The 22-year-old female student said that her pet eats well even though it is usually quite picky. Ngan likes that the shop has many attractive cakes, beautifully presented, suitable for pets to snack on instead of main meals. On her upcoming birthday, Ngan will order a special cake for her pet.

"Although the price is not cheap, it is acceptable because the cake has a fragrant flavor and beautiful color. Moreover, I feel that making cakes for animals is more elaborate," Ngan said.

The shop owner said that in the near future, he will try to make more types of cakes and expand this model to enrich the spiritual life of pets as well as their owners.