Taichung’s viral dessert sells out in 10 minutes – a 27-year-old guy’s handmade layered cakes

▲ What Dessert Will We Make Today? visits a market about once a month, preparing 10–15 different types of desserts each time. (Photo / Provided by What Dessert Will We Make Today? – all photos below are from the same source)

Reporter Li Ziyi / Reporting

Selling out in 10 minutes has dessert lovers going wild. Taichung’s “What Dessert Will We Make Today?” is a private dessert studio that opens for online orders only once a month, specializing in layered cakes, fresh cheese cakes, as well as pound cakes, madeleines, and financiers. The level of popularity is so extreme that items typically sell out within about 10 minutes of release—come late and you really can’t get them.

The owner of What Dessert Will We Make Today? is Weili, a 27-year-old guy. He started taking his Facebook fan page seriously about a year ago, and his interest in making desserts began during the period after graduation while waiting for his military service. To celebrate Father’s Day, he made his very first lemon tart. Weili laughs and says it probably wasn’t particularly delicious, but his family loved it, which gave him a great sense of achievement. Later, during his military service, he learned by looking at recipes and gradually tried making other desserts.

▲ One of Weili’s signature items, the “Komakura Matcha Layered Cake,” costs 170 TWD per slice.

Starting in November and December 2016, he began selling his homemade desserts, initially managing an Instagram account and teaming up with fellow baking enthusiast Zoey to do pop-up sales and market vending. Later, he started the fan page and began opening pre-orders irregularly each month.

As Weili explained, Zoey, who runs no.09, makes desserts that perfectly complement his—the different items work well together and have received positive feedback at markets. For example, Weili likes making layered cakes, fresh cheese cakes, and room-temperature treats like pound cakes, madeleines, and financiers, while Zoey prefers tarts and cream rolls.

▲ A closer look reveals that Weili loves using tea in his desserts; this photo shows the Earl Grey Layered Cake at 170 TWD per slice.

The most popular item is the layered cake, Weili says.

The standout among them is this one: the “Purple Sweet Potato Layered Cake,” which has only been offered twice in a year but remains unforgettable to customers, with extremely high demand. During the interview, Weili was somewhat hesitant to speak about it—turns out making the purple sweet potato layered cake is especially labor-intensive, requiring the purple sweet potato to be sifted twice to make a Mont Blanc-style piping. It’s only been available during Mother’s Day and one market event so far, and you really can’t get it at other times.

▲ The ultra-limited “Purple Sweet Potato Layered Cake,” which has only appeared twice, costs 190 TWD per slice.

▲ One of the matcha series, the Black-Green Matcha Pound Cake, costs 60 TWD per slice.

In addition, the monthly staples like the matcha layered cake and Earl Grey layered cake are also extremely popular. Upon closer inspection, it’s clear Weili enjoys using tea, flowers, and fruits in his desserts. He mentions that Japanese matcha and hojicha, Taiwan’s Tieguanyin, oolong, Oriental Beauty, and Sun Moon Lake black tea, as well as France’s Earl Grey, are all among his favorite teas. For flowers, he most often uses locally grown osmanthus and roses—for instance, those from Miaoli’s Nanzhuang or Nantou’s Puli are excellent.

▲ The Osmanthus Hojicha Fresh Cheese Cake, made with osmanthus and hojicha, is refreshing and not overly sweet, priced at 350 TWD.

The matcha dessert series, launched roughly every two to three months, is also a fan favorite. The Matcha Feast series includes the Komakura Matcha Layered Cake, Matcha Mont Blanc Fresh Cheese Cake, Black-Green Matcha Pound Cake, Matcha Madeleine, and Matcha Financier, with prices ranging from 50 to 170 TWD. Many customers log on the moment orders open just to get the full Matcha Feast experience.

▲ The Matcha series items—the Matcha Mont Blanc Fresh Cheese, Matcha Financier, and Matcha Pound Cake—are priced at 130 TWD, 50 TWD, and 50 TWD respectively.

Each month, around 100+ dessert orders are delivered, with the number of layered cakes ordered serving as the cutoff benchmark for preorders—no more than 200 slices are available. Occasionally during pop-up sales in Taipei, the preorder form sells out in just 1 minute; normally, the monthly regular home delivery orders sell out in about 10 minutes.

▲ They’ve also done pop-up dessert sales at the Kaohsiung café “Big City, Small Stories.”

I asked Weili, what do you think makes your desserts so appealing that they sell out in just 10 minutes? After thinking it over, he said it might be because he doesn’t go for flashy or overly elaborate designs or decorations—he simply follows his heart and makes the desserts he enjoys. Seeing comments from customers on Instagram saying that his desserts have an “adult taste” perhaps reflects how this simple flavor captures the essence of what people truly love about sweets.

“What Dessert Will We Make Today?”

What Dessert Will We Make Today? Facebook Page
IG:https://www.instagram.com/w_dessert/