Luo Dan's re-creation of the almond tea mentioned in The Dream of the Red Chamber. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Luo was chosen to make Chinese cookies for all the first ladies at an APEC dinner, which were later presented as gifts in a specially made wooden box.

Luo painstakingly decorated her handmade cookies with flowers from all four seasons, with each one taking her four to five hours to make. The flowers were very lifelike.

"The petals were made of icing sugar, which I shaped first of all. I then added color to them before pasting each one onto the cookies. They were very small and thin and very fragile, so I needed to be very careful," says Luo.

Luo learned traditional Chinese painting when she was a child and kept up the hobby until college. After studying graphic design at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute from 2001 to 2005, Luo became a designer.

Her passion for desserts started during college, when she began experimenting with baking cakes at home. A year into her design job, she decided to quit and pursue her dreams.

Luo gave birth to a boy two years after getting married in 2007, and now her life is divided into two distinct roles - raising her son and creating desserts.

Luo has witnessed how desserts have grown in popularity in China over the past decade.

"When we first started in 2008, we would communicate via an online food forum, where we would discuss new dishes. One homemade cake I made wowed everyone," Luo says.

"Now many families have their own ovens. They can easily make cookies or bread at home. And it's easy to find a dessert shop down the street, which was rare 10 years ago."

Creating a new dessert is like making an art piece for Luo. "I enjoy each cooking process - from designing the dish, to preparing the ingredients, to making the dessert - even though each step takes a long time."

Besides launching her culinary career, Luo developed an interest in flower arranging, tea culture and designing furniture. But after the APEC summit, she chose to shun the limelight and focus her efforts on making Chinese desserts.

"The ingredients used in making Chinese desserts are healthy, such as grain, fruit and vegetables, which don't add too much burden to your body. And sweet foods also make people happy," says Luo, explaining why she continues to run the online course to teach dessert making.

For Luo, creating new Western-style desserts is an easier undertaking because there are more reference points available, whereas she often has to develop new Chinese desserts from scratch. There are no certainties in the process. Sometimes she worries that her creations are too Western, and at other times she finds her wondering if the traditional recipes are actually better.

"Making desserts is like life. You need to find the beauty, and add your own understanding and inspiration, so the beauty will be relevant to you."