Mooncakes, many containing yolks from salted duck eggs to represent the moon, are traditionally eaten while moon-gazing during the Chinese mid-Autumn festival.

However as they are also given to elders as a mark of respect, they often appear at family gatherings for Chinese New Year.

These mooncakes and all of the other Chinese cakes and cookies Farizah bakes are different – they’re halal.

Farizah, 37, has always enjoyed cooking and could bake various type of cookies, cakes and biscuits from the age of 11. Her friends always loved eating her baked products.

A few years ago, she started getting requests from Malay friends who wanted halal mooncakes but couldn’t find any.

Never one to turn down a challenge, she taught herself how to bake them with the aid of YouTube tutorials.

Soon Farizah, originally from Melaka, was turning out batches of halal mooncakes in her tiny kitchen in Petaling Jaya.

Her Muslim friends bought all she could bake and kept ordering more.

Word got around about how good her cakes were and soon Indian and Chinese customers joined the queue.

The business began to take off. Her husband, Abu Huzaifah Ismail, worked as a rubber tapper at that time. Sometimes after work, he helped her deliver mooncakes and cookies to her local customers.

She posted about her cakes online and was soon receiving orders. She and her husband boxed up the cakes and sent them through Pos Laju.

She took orders and baked even while pregnant. But it was difficult to keep up with demand.

“Baking in quantity was hard in KL, as we only had a small place. The rent for a bakery shop was too pricey for us.”

In 2015, they moved to Jempol in Negeri Sembilan with their six children. “A large house is much cheaper here. The kitchen in our new house is enormous. Plenty of room for baking.”

She realised her new neighbourhood had no bakery shop. So she decided to start one herself.

“It was tough in the beginning as we had only limited money to kit out the kitchen. We used our savings to buy everything we needed,” she recalled.

Then, with a large, well-equipped kitchen she was ready to move her business up a gear.

Her husband quit his job and together they turned baking into a full-time business.

“The children help too, when they’ve finished their schoolwork. It seems impossible but it works because we have each other.”

“I bake various types of cookies and cakes. At Chinese New Year, I receive so many orders for mooncakes.

“People can get them in different flavours including pandan, salted egg, red bean, Oreo and even durian.”

She also bakes tau sar piah – Hokkien bean paste in flaky pastry – and the bite-sized biskut tambun, a Penang favourite. Also on the menu are Chinese almond cookies and special Hello Kitty cookies.

“I started a baking class for women who live nearby, and there’s also a distance learning course through Pendidikan Jarak Jauh Malaysia.”

Now she is a successful businesswoman, with a substantial Facebook and Instagram presence, but she is still a hands-on baker and insists on doing everything herself from buying the ingredients, to preparing and baking.

Many of her Chinese customers like to order halal rather than regular mooncakes when the festival season comes around.

She thinks it’s probably because they want to be hospitable to their Muslim friends who visit and celebrate with them.

Having worn a hijab from the age of 29, Farizah, now also known by her celebrity name Kak Fie, changed to a niqab a year ago. She said she always wanted to wear one but it took her a while to build the confidence to do it.

At first, it was difficult moving around in her niqab but she’s comfortable wearing it now and only takes it off at home.

Her cooking students are all women but she still wears her niqab in class just in case one of their husbands drives their wives to the class.

Her hard work has finally paid off and she has appeared on morning television to demonstrate baking her now famous mooncakes. Although, it would be wrong to call her a recognisable celebrity on the show, as she wore her niqab throughout her spot, with only her eyes visible.

She opened the popular Si Manis Café and Bakery in Jempol, though her other increasing number of commitments mean she can’t devote much time to it.

As her fame spreads, she is getting a lot of invitations to demonstrate and teach baking.

“I am very busy teaching classes up and down the country and even abroad. I have just received an invitation to teach in Jakarta, Indonesia, which I’m looking forward to.”

“I’m having to put my bakery shop and café on hold for a while so I can focus on my teaching first.”

As she dons her niqab and sets out to teach another class, she reflects on her decision to cover up. “Although I wear a niqab, I’m quite comfortable in it now, and it has not negatively affected my business.”

In fact it might even be a selling point, as although niqabs are meant to shield the wearer from attention, wearing one could be making her and her halal bakery products stand out from the crowd. And that’s got to be a good thing.