If your family is gathering for Tết this year, you already know food carries meaning long before anyone takes a bite. Between the bánh chưng resting on the ancestral altar and the lì xì tucked into red envelopes for the youngest cousins, every dish says something about luck, respect, and renewal. A modern celebration cake sits alongside those traditions, not in place of them — and getting the flavour, colour, and timing right matters more than most bakeries realise. Num Num's Bakery makes every cake 100% eggless, and this guide walks through what Tết actually involves, which flavours Vietnamese families order most, and how to plan your cake around the busiest celebration week of the year.
- Tết is Vietnam's biggest festival, celebrated widely across Western Sydney's large Vietnamese community.
- Lì xì envelopes, bánh chưng and ancestral altars anchor the traditions.
- Cakes complement bánh chưng — they don't replace it.
- Mango, Pineapple and Lychee are our most-requested Tết flavours.
- Order 48 hours ahead; book earlier during Tết week itself.
What Is Tết and Why Does It Matter to Sydney's Vietnamese Community?
Tết Nguyên Đán is Vietnam's most significant festival, marking the start of the lunar new year with days of family reunion and ancestor veneration. Fairfield LGA is home to one of the largest concentrations of Vietnamese-born and Vietnamese-ancestry residents recorded in the 2021 ABS Census QuickStats for Fairfield, making Western Sydney home to one of the largest Vietnamese communities outside Vietnam itself. For families here, Tết isn't a single day. It's a multi-day season of visiting relatives, honouring ancestors, and sharing food that carries specific meaning.
Tết shares its date with Chinese Lunar New Year, but the customs are distinctly Vietnamese. Visiting order matters — families call on the eldest relatives first, then work outward through the extended family, a sequence tied to respect for seniority. Ancestral altar offerings sit in place for days, not hours. Even the centrepiece food differs. Bánh chưng and bánh tét, the square and cylindrical sticky-rice cakes wrapped in dong leaves, exist nowhere in the Chinese New Year tradition, and they're the dish most closely tied to Tết itself.
Western Sydney's Fairfield, Cabramatta, Bankstown and Canley Vale corridor is widely recognised as one of the largest concentrations of Vietnamese heritage outside Vietnam (ABS, 2021 Census QuickStats, Fairfield LGA). For local bakeries, that means Tết isn't a niche request — it's a genuine seasonal peak, on par with Diwali or Christmas.
What Are the Most Important Tết Traditions?
Three traditions come up in nearly every Tết-related order conversation we have with customers across Cabramatta, Fairfield and Bankstown: lì xì red envelopes, the multi-day family reunion, and ancestral altar offerings. Each carries its own etiquette, and getting it right matters to the people celebrating.
- Lì xì (lucky money): Red envelopes containing money, given by elders to children and unmarried younger relatives as a wish for good fortune in the new year.
- Bánh chưng and bánh tét: Savoury sticky rice parcels filled with mung bean and pork, wrapped in dong leaves and steamed for hours — a symbolic offering, not an everyday snack.
- Ancestral altar offerings: Fruit, incense, and food are laid out for several days to honour deceased family members and invite their blessing on the year ahead.
- Visiting in order of seniority: The first visit of the new year usually goes to the eldest living relative, then extended family, then friends.
- Avoiding bad luck on day one: Many households avoid sweeping the floor, breaking objects, or using all-white flowers on the first day, since white is traditionally linked to mourning.
Colour and word choice both carry weight during Tết. Red and gold dominate decorations because they're associated with luck and prosperity, and certain words are avoided at the table because they sound similar to unlucky terms in Vietnamese. None of this is decoration for its own sake — it's a genuinely held set of customs passed down through generations of families now living across Sydney's Vietnamese neighbourhoods.
How Is a Celebration Cake Different from Bánh Chưng and Bánh Tét?
From our conversations with Vietnamese customers across Western Sydney, cake orders for Tết are almost always for the family reunion table or a specific well-wishing moment — never as a stand-in for bánh chưng. That distinction matters, and we want to be upfront about it rather than let it go unsaid.
Bánh chưng and bánh tét are savoury, ritual foods, wrapped and steamed by hand, often over an entire day, and placed on the ancestral altar as an offering before anyone eats. A Western-style celebration cake plays a completely different role. It's a sweet centrepiece for the reunion dinner or a gift for visiting relatives, chosen for flavour and presentation rather than ritual significance. We're not suggesting a cake belongs on the altar in place of bánh chưng — it doesn't, and we'd never claim otherwise. Think of it as a modern addition to the table, alongside the traditional dishes, not a replacement for them.
Customers often ask us, gently but directly, whether a cake is "appropriate" for Tết. It always is — as a reunion dessert, not an altar item. We've found families relax once that boundary is clear, because it means we're not overstepping a tradition we don't own.
Which Cake Flavours Work Best for a Tết Family Gathering?
From our order data across Cabramatta, Fairfield, Bankstown and Canley Vale, Mango, Pineapple and Lychee are the three most-requested flavours for Tết orders. Their bright gold and fragrant profiles echo the prosperity symbolism woven through the festival, while remaining genuinely popular flavours in their own right.
Looking at our own Tết-week order pattern over recent years, gold and fruit-forward flavours dominate: Mango leads, Pineapple and Lychee follow closely, and Chocolate rounds out the top four for family members who prefer something more familiar.
See the full Our Cakes page for photos of every flavour, including sizing options for larger family reunions. Every cake on that page is eggless as standard, so there's no separate "eggless section" to navigate.
Why Is Western Sydney's Vietnamese Community So Significant?
Sydney is home to tens of thousands of residents with Vietnamese heritage, concentrated heavily in Fairfield, Cabramatta, Bankstown, Canley Vale, Villawood and Yagoona, according to the 2021 ABS Census QuickStats for Fairfield LGA. It's genuinely one of the largest Vietnamese communities outside Vietnam, which is exactly why Tết functions here as a major seasonal event rather than a small cultural footnote.
We won't put a false-precision figure on exactly how many households in each suburb celebrate Tết — that data isn't published at that level of detail. What we can say, from years of taking Tết orders across this corridor, is that demand is real, recurring, and growing each year alongside the broader population of Western Sydney.
Cabramatta, Fairfield, Canley Vale and Bankstown collectively form one of the most significant hubs of Vietnamese settlement in Australia (ABS, 2021 Census QuickStats, Fairfield LGA). For any Sydney bakery, that concentration means Tết deserves the same seasonal planning as Christmas or Lunar New Year more broadly.
Does "100% Eggless" Mean Vegan or Certified for Tết Offerings?
No — "100% eggless" only means our kitchen never uses eggs, and it's worth stating plainly rather than leaving it implied. Under the eight priority allergens defined by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), egg is a labelled allergen, and our egg-free kitchen removes that specific cross-contamination risk. It does not mean the cake is vegan, nut-free, or certified for any formal religious or dietary standard.
Our cakes contain dairy — milk powder and butter feature in every recipe — so they are not suitable for a vegan diet. We are not a certified nut-free facility, and we hold no formal kosher, halal, or other religious certification. If you're placing an ancestral altar offering that requires a specific certification, please don't assume our cakes meet it — check with us directly and we'll answer honestly rather than guess. Read more about how our kitchen works on our About page. For general food safety guidance around home celebrations, NSW Health's food safety resources are a useful reference too.
How Far Ahead Should You Order a Tết Cake?
Tết week functions like Christmas or Diwali for us — from our multi-year order data, WhatsApp enquiries roughly double in the days leading up to it, compared with a normal week. Our standard 48-hour notice window tightens fast once that surge starts, so early planning genuinely pays off.
- Browse the flavours: Check the Our Cakes page for the full 15-flavour menu with photos, and shortlist two or three options.
- Message us on WhatsApp: Send your order to +61 425 697 725 with your flavour, size, any custom design brief, and preferred pickup date.
- Give at least 48 hours' notice: For custom red-and-gold designs or orders during Tết week itself, 4–5 days is a safer window.
- Confirm and collect: We'll confirm everything in writing over WhatsApp. Collect from either Harris Park or Riverstone — both have easy parking.
Message us on WhatsApp with your flavour, size, and pickup date. We'll confirm in writing before you collect from Harris Park or Riverstone.
What Colours and Designs Suit a Tết Celebration Cake?
Red and gold dominate Tết decorating for a reason — from our design briefs across recent Tết seasons, roughly nine in ten custom Tết cake requests specify these two colours, echoing the same palette used on lì xì envelopes and altar decorations. It's not a strict rule, but it's a strong, consistent preference.
One pattern we've noticed across Tết orders: families rarely request all-white flowers or icing as the dominant colour, mirroring the household custom of avoiding white — traditionally linked to mourning — on the first days of the new year. Gold accents, blossom motifs, and citrus fruit toppers appear far more often instead.
Common design requests include peach or apricot blossom piping (symbolising the flowers displayed in many Vietnamese homes during Tết), citrus or kumquat fruit motifs for prosperity, and simple gold lettering wishing the family "an khang thịnh vượng" — peace, health, and prosperity. If you're not sure how to translate a wish into a design brief, mention it on WhatsApp and we'll talk it through together.
If your celebration also spans other traditions in your household, our Indian sweets range is worth a look too — many multicultural Sydney families mix a Western-style cake with traditional sweets on the same dessert table.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Tết and when is it celebrated?
Tết Nguyên Đán is Vietnam's Lunar New Year and its most important festival, marking days of family reunion, ancestor veneration and renewal. It falls on the same lunar calendar as Chinese New Year, typically between late January and mid-February, though the exact date shifts every year — check a current lunar calendar before planning your celebration.
Can I order a 100% eggless cake for Tết from Num Num's Bakery?
Yes — every cake at Num Num's Bakery is 100% eggless as standard, across all 15 flavours, with no separate eggless menu. Order via WhatsApp at +61 425 697 725 with your flavour, size and pickup date, giving at least 48 hours' notice, longer during Tết week itself.
Does "100% eggless" mean the cake is vegan or nut-free?
No. "100% eggless" means our kitchen never uses eggs — nothing more. Our cakes contain dairy, including milk powder and butter, so they aren't vegan. We aren't a certified nut-free facility either. If you have a severe allergy, tell us when ordering so we can talk through your specific concerns honestly.
How far in advance should I order a cake for Tết?
Standard orders need at least 48 hours' notice. Tết week functions like Christmas or Diwali for us — enquiries spike sharply in the days before, so we recommend 4–5 days' notice if you want a specific flavour or a custom design. Message us early on WhatsApp to lock in your preferred pickup time.
What flavours do Vietnamese families order most for Tết?
From our order data across Cabramatta, Fairfield, Bankstown and Canley Vale, Mango, Pineapple and Lychee are the most-requested flavours for Tết — their bright gold and fragrant profiles suit the festive table. Chocolate and Red Velvet also sell well for younger family members who prefer a more familiar flavour.
15 flavours, made fresh to order, ready for pickup from Harris Park or Riverstone. WhatsApp us early — Tết week fills up fast.