Growing up, Madhu Vasudevan remembers a childhood filled with her mother’s delicious desserts – from kuih to Indian sweets and elaborate birthday cakes in the shape of teddy bears, books and even flower baskets.
“I think my love of baking actually started from the time we were kids because my mum made all these elaborate desserts. So we learnt how to bake from her, and I loved it, but I never thought of it as a career option,” she says.
After obtaining her university degree, the allure of baking continued to enthral her, and before she turned 30, Madhu decided she would go ahead and pursue a course in pastry arts. So she enrolled in a six-month pastry programme at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts in America.
When she returned home, Madhu was excited to share all the classic French pastry that she had learnt to make during her course with her family. The one drawback? Her youngest sister Mrina Vasudevan is lactose-intolerant.
“Being in a French programme, everything had cream and butter, and my poor younger sister, who’s born lactose-intolerant, can’t touch any of that. So for the longest time, I couldn’t make anything because everything made her sick,” says Madhu.
For reference, lactose is the sugar found in the milk of mammals. People who are lactose-intolerant typically cannot digest lactose, which means consumption of lactose-rich products often results in bloating, diarrhoea or even stomach cramps.
It is also common for people to become lactose-intolerant as they age, with data suggesting that up to 70% of adults globally have some form of intolerance – whether they know it or not.
Despite initially finding it difficult to cater to Mrina’s dietary restriction, the uptick in the availability of lactose-free products in local supermarkets in the past five years meant that Madhu eventually had the opportunity to test out her baking skills and actually bake desserts that Mrina could eat.
Madhu spent the next two years actively experimenting – purely out of love for her sister.
“Honestly, it was just about making desserts that my sister could eat. I never thought to turn it into a business. But Mrina started sharing it with her friends – some were lactose-intolerant and many were not, but they were just looking for good desserts.
“So all her friends became my fans, and they were like, ‘Why wouldn’t you sell this?’” says Madhu.
Buoyed by that enthusiastic response and driven by a desire to make desserts that Mrina and many other people with similar allergies could actually eat, Madhu launched her fledgling lactose-free, gluten-free dessert range The Milk Society online a few months ago. The brand is arguably the first of its kind in Kuala Lumpur.
At the moment, The Milk Society offers four lactose-free desserts, including a lemon Basque cheesecake, chocolate Basque cheesecake, Japanese style crème caramel and chocolate pots.
If you’re expecting desserts that you have to settle for or make do with purely because you’re lactose-intolerant, you’re in for a surprise because Madhu’s desserts are insanely delicious. Her lemon Basque cheesecake is fresh and slightly tangy with a lightly creamy, moist texture that yields pure delight.
The chocolate version, meanwhile, is nirvanic – silken smooth and filled with cocoa goodness. The Japanese-style crème caramel (made in homage to Madhu’s late dad, who made this for his children every weekend) is another stunner that is wobbly, velvety soft and utterly intoxicating, while the chocolate pots are glossy, rich and hugely addictive.
To put together her dessert stable, Madhu sourced the best lactose-free ingredients in the market, with a focus on finding local variants. As a result, nearly her entire range is made using Malaysian ingredients.
Crafting the desserts from scratch, however, was the equivalent of scrabbling around in the dark, an experience that was also dotted with plenty of failed experiments.
“I’m a perfectionist, so I won’t put anything out that I don’t like. So some of my challenges included getting the ratio right to where you get that kind of melty texture that goes with a Basque cheesecake – that took me a long time to nail. Everything came down to how long you mix it for, in what order you put the ingredients, and how long you bake it for. And that entire thing became a science.
“So it was just every single week making it again and again and again. My sisters ate so many cheesecakes that they couldn’t tell the difference between all the versions at some point.
“And the crème caramel was also tricky – I think I made at least 100 versions before I perfected it,” she says, laughing.
Madhu’s older sister Maithili Vasudevan, who is helping her with the business, says that one of the best things about The Milk Society is that it encourages inclusive consumption.
“I think it’s such a nice thing that you don’t have to be lactose-intolerant, but you can share this with someone who is and actually enjoy a nice dessert together. So much of the happiness is in the communal sharing,” she says.
Moving forward, Madhu is looking at partnering with a local supermarket to sell individual slices of her cheese cakes as well as the chocolate pots so that people can have their indulgences in smaller doses.
Ultimately though, Madhu says the thing that makes her happiest about launching her lactose-free desserts is that so many more people can now enjoy sweet temptations without feeling sick afterwards.
“It’s a niche market, but it’s a market that’s been neglected for so long, you know, and I think that having that option has been a game-changer for a lot of our clients who actually do want lactose-free dessert. So for me, it’s so nice hearing people say, ‘Oh my God, I can finally eat cheesecake and not feel sick!’”
“Because if you are lactose-intolerant, you’ve probably had to deny yourself these treats time and time again. So when I started The Milk Society, I wanted people to know that you can have your cake and eat it too,” says Madhu.
You can find The Milk Society on Instagram and via WhatsApp at 0111 666 1521.
