Dewi goes to a nearby cake vendor almost every morning to buy snacks. The vendor offers various traditional snacks such as kue mangkok (cupcake), kue singkong (cassava cake), lemper (steamed glutinous rice) or sosis solo (savory snack containing meat).

But there is no petulo, and Dewi raises her eyebrows when asked about the hair roller-like market snack.

“What? I have never heard of that,” she said.

The cake, which is made from rice flour dough and served with coconut milk, is still rarely found.

A recent cooking demonstration organized by the Dapur Ngebul and Organic Kitchen Garden Facebook groups, aimed to promote the East Java delicacy and dig further into traditional Indonesian cakes.

“Petulo is familiar to people in East Java and Madura. When I posted it [on social media] recently, netizens responded with enthusiasm. So I thought why not have a gathering to make it better known? We give them the chance to learn more about making petulo,” Puji Purnama, the initiator of petulo à la Master Lanny Ruslan, said.

The event at Yumakan restaurant in Jakarta was attended by some 40 members of Dapur Ngebul and Organic Kitchen Garden.

Lanny has been recognized for her cake-making expertise, which has taken her to several cities and towns to give cooking classes.

Her cake-making skills were first shown to the public in 1989 when she and her mother made a Rumah Joglo miniature constructed from thousands of snacks for the Indonesian Cake Festival at the Jakarta Convention Center.

Their creation, which was inaugurated by then-first lady Tien Soeharto, was included in the Museum Record of Indonesia (MURI).

Making cakes is a family craft inherited and handed down by her grandmother. An aunt of Lanny’s is also engaged in the business.

Traditional skill: Lanny Rustan demonstrates how to make a petulo, a rice flour cake from East Java, in Jakarta.

She first learned about making petulo in 1989 when the Indonesian Culinary Foundation (LKI), where she worked, invited a cake master from Surabaya to demonstrate East Javan deserts.

“Among the cakes was petulo. It looked uniquely beautiful and attractive. It’s like a hair roller. I thought people might be interested. So I decided to get focused on it,” Lanny, now 65, said.

In addition to running a cake shop out of her home, she also receives invitations to teach cake-making classes like she did at Yumakan restaurant.

She teaches methods that the participants can use to make cakes from a list of recipes provided.

The ingredients included rice flour, coconut milk, salt, sago flour, food coloring, sugar and pandan leaves.

“The coconut milk must be cooked in order to last long,” she said.

The trickiest part was when the dough had to be shaped into a hair roller-like shape with a mold. Not all participants did it perfectly.

“It looks quite difficult, but I’ll try it myself at home,” Vicky, one of the participants, said.

She said she had discovered petulo on Instagram and had joined the event simply out of curiosity.

Farma Sirait was already thinking of adding petulo to her bakery’s menu.

“As far as I know, no such cake is around yet in my neighborhood. So it may be worth trying to market it,” she said.

Puji said Lanny’s profession helped preserve traditional Indonesian baking.

“At her age, she is still actively making traditional cakes. Petulo is one of her signature cakes and she is always prepared to share her knowledge,” said the notable Indonesian food stylist.

“Hopefully, petulo will become increasingly popular among people, especially the young generation, so that we can preserve it as part of the nation’s diverse culinary heritage,” he said.

Photos JP/Arief Suhardiman