We had the opportunity to talk and see firsthand the process of making cake with Kharisma Lalachan from the Brrrrr Project. Starting from an interest in decorating cakes and with tutorials on the YouTube channel, now Brrrrr has become one of the best-selling cake sellers and is in great demand in Malang City to provide delivery services. In addition, she also runs a business in the coffeeshop, namely Escape Escape Coffee and Craft.
Kharisma Lalachan is a person who works in the world of illustration based in Malang. Apart from production and operational activities at the Brrrr Project and Escape Escape Coffee and Craft, she also takes her time as a freelance illustrator in various projects, ranging from small projects to taking part in contributing as a filler for one of the artist and illustrator collection books. Check out our interview below.
Since when did you start / struggle in the Cake business?
“Brrrrr.project started a cake business in the early half of the 2020 pandemic. At first, brrrrr.project was a brand that sold tinted lip balm, besides that it also sold knick-knacks such as frame illustrations, commission illustrations, face masks, posters, picnic matts, and oriented as a giftshop. But in the middle of the 2020 pandemic, one customer asked randomly “can brrrrr.project make cakes?” and from there came creative ideas to move into the realm of Cake. After doing research through several digital platforms about the ins and outs of cake making for about two weeks, I finally started to pursue and always explore visually varied cake decorations”.
What are the factors that make you interested in concentrating in this field?
“One of the influencing factors to concentrate in this field because basically brrrrr is a shop that is opened for gift shops and at that time the concentration of brrrrr leads to the trending korean-thai style. And because I follow the trend that is being pursued by Korean and Thai homecoffee, at that moment they are carrying and booming the cake and homecoffee trend. And that’s where I was interested in making Brrrr as a homecoffee”.
How many cakes are sold on average in a day?
“For the average cake sold a day 5 cake mixes with large sizes and if ready cakes are available, on average, up to 8 cakes come out in a day. However, at certain moments which are commemorated as big days, they have sold up to 16 cakes”.
How do you manage this?
“To manage at brrrrr, we are already looking for our own admin to take care of orders, so there are 3 management applications, Cook Helper, Decoration, Admin. So I and the team regularly conduct briefings about this. So that it can be optimally organized and minimize the risk of problems in operations and production management”.
What do you think makes people interested in ordering cakes at Brrrr?
“In terms of our prices are below average, the reason for choosing below average prices is to expand the market area for customer satisfaction. In terms of decoration, customers can request and there is no limit to request colors or all kinds of decorations, but that is already included in the determination of the ordering fee. So there is no additional cost in terms of varied decorations”.
So far, what is your biggest achievement that has been realized?
“The biggest achievement of brrrrr so far is being able to produce more cakes than ever before and already having admin and cake helpers because of the increasing number of cake enthusiasts and also the availability of brrrrr delivery services to be more efficient in delivery”
So far, what is your biggest achievement that has been realized?
“The biggest achievement of brrrrr so far is being able to produce more cakes than ever before and already having admin and cake helpers because of the increasing number of cake enthusiasts and also the availability of brrrrr delivery services to be more efficient in delivery”.
What big thing will you do this year?
“For big things in the near future, we will carefully activate brrrrr delivery as a delivery service provider and brrrrrutalism as merchandise which is illustrated as the darkside of brrrrr. In addition, we will also invite collaboration with Escape Escape Coffee to provide catering services for seasonal menus, and hopefully we can build our own shop”.
"Create your own magical world. Beautiful release, isn't it?"
Kharisma Lalachan
Kharisma Lalachan (@kharisma04_) is a illustrator based in Malang. Apart from pursuing a career in illustration, she also engaged in the cake business, namely Brrrrr (@brrrrr.project) and runs Escape Escape Coffee and Craft (@escapeescape.cc)