Turkish Delights from Chantilly Lace Cup Cakes.
Cup cakes have taken South Africa and Cape Town by storm.
Established bakeries, home producers, wedding cake makers, food stylists and pastry chefs across South Africa can’t keep up with the demand for them. And, it seems, you have to order ahead most of the time, as they are best eaten freshly made.
Charly's Bakery, 38 Canterbury Street, Cape Town.
Jacqui Biess, of Charly’s Bakery, is no stranger to this seemingly new phenomenon. “We were the first to do cup cakes in South Africa, 11 years ago, when me made cup cake towers for baby showers and the like and were featured in various magazines”.
Charly, her husband, learnt his trade up in the famous Cafe Anton in Swakopmund in Namibia. Now Jacqui and her three daughters run the operation and are the creative direction behind the bakery.
“We sell up to 1,000 a day over the counter and for pre orders. We’ve just done a corporate order for 1,200 for a company, and each individuals name is piped on the cake”. Jacqui’s daughters are a creative energy behind cup cakes.They produced their Malema range – “Bloody Agent!” and the TV studio row range – “Don’t touch me on my studio!”. They were a big hit, customers love cheeky themes.
Chantelle Schmidlin runs Chantilly Lace Cupcakes with her mother,Veronica. She only uses fresh and unprepared ingredients, except for essences, which she has to import. She and her mother are creative people, and they love experimenting with different flavours, mixes and colours. “People love them because it’s a different way of doing a familiar thing. Capetonians love stylish, classy little things.” Her best sellers are Creme Brulee, Berry Swirl and Death By Chocolate. She sells to people who are “just having a bad day and need 6, or to companies who might need 600″.
Michael Brewis is the pastry chef at Frostings in Belville. They make to order only and have a small outlet on Twift Street in Rosenpark. “Our most popular flavour is chocolate and
A little bite of happiness from Charly's.
second is carrot”.
And why are they so popular? ” I think because of their convenience, it means that you don’t have to bring a whole cake to a party”.
Let’s examine this question a bit more. Their popularity…….there has be something deeper than portion control. American psychologists have argued about it for the best part of a decade (well, they have to have something to do).
They say that they are marketed to women, and this explains all the girly pinks and pastels. Eating a whole slice of cake would be greedy, but a cup cake shows an acceptable level of moderation. A shop full of cup cakes pushes a button in women’s brains. They see them and want one as they will make them feel loved and wanted. They feel special.
Hello Jacqui, can you help us here please? Why are they so popular?
A cup cake tower.
“They are a little bite of happiness”, she says. “The portions are small, and there are endless permutations and combinations of flavours and styles. They are small, fun and cute. I see people pull up outside our building and as they approach the door I see them smiling and relaxing. It’s amazing. They come to us for their Happy Fix. I think it brings them back to their childhood”.
That’s lovely.
In fact it’s so nice that Jacqui agreed,with Spill, to put a smile on some lucky Capetonians face.
Yes folks, you could WIN A TRAY OF 12 DELICIOUS CUP CAKES of your choice.
All you have to do is to tell us why you like cup cakes. The winning entry will be announced and you can mosey down to Charly’s to collect your tray of delicious goodies.
The competition closes on Friday at 12pm.
COMPETITION WINNER (‘S) ARE! : First place to Candikar, for her nostalgic sharing of memories with University friends. See below.
Second place goes to PinkPenWords, for her delicious little Tweet in 100 letters or less.
Ode 2 CupCake: a little tiny treat that’s
nice to eat. U make my birthdays
Oh so sweet. Vanilla, Caramel
or choc, I really love you a lot.
Candikar wins a tray of 12 personalised cup cakes, and PinkPenWords wins a tray of 6 personalised cupcakes.
Our Thanks to Charly’s Bakery for putting up the prizes.
Charly’s Bakery, 38 Canterbury Street, Cape Town 8001. 021 461 5181.
Chantilly Lace Cup Cakes. www.chantilly-lace.co.za 082 766 6557.
Frostings. 0741 588 885. 021 914 0264.
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“We were the first to do cupckes in South Africa 11 years ago”
mmmm Wonder where my mom/gran/church/school/everyone else got their cupcakes for all those years before? Soemone must have had an extremely lucrative cupcale import business
I love cupcakes (especially pink ones) because they remind me two of my grandest university friends, Claire and Amy. Amy has an unfathomable love for cupcakes, so much so that she self-dubbed herself ‘Princess Porky’ and threw regular ‘SweetFests’ with custard slices, chocolate mouse and cupcakes in all shades of pink dusted with sparkles.
With them, a love for cupcakes was seeded and lovingly tendered through lectures, exams, pre-drinks, midnight munchies and morning hangovers. Cupcakes became such a part of our friendship and lives, that the “f*ck friday” sessions were introduced – where whoever felt they’d had the worst week would whip up a batch of cupcakes. Then whilst the cupcakes cooled, were iced, and then eaten (in very quick succession), tea would be drunk and the weeks ‘war stories’ exchanged.
Ah! Varsity years were such good times! Now we’ve all left Rhodes and are living in separate cities (and it sucks grannyballs being ‘grown up’). But yay for cupcakes and all the memories they bring back!
I LOVE cupcakes because when you have one you feel naughty for eating something ‘fattening’, they are always so pretty that for some silly reason you feel pretty, and they always make me feel like a kid. You can’t help but smile when you eat a cupcake.
One bite and you throw all resistance to the wind. That melt in the mouth, close your eyes wickedly luxurious cupcake makes it all worthwhile! mmmmmm Oh give me more please!
Diet, what diet??
@Werner Come on…I meant 1st bakery to make cupcakes commercially and personalise them and turnn them into towers of beautiful wedding cakes. Cupcakes are timeless little treats. I would never take the credit from all the Grannies, Moms et al
@Candidkar and PinkPenWords Well done!! please go onto our website http://www.charlysbakery.co.za and look at the cupcake photo album in the photo gallery and choose your prize. or come into the bakery and choose your designs with us.
Email or call us with your order on charlysbakery@gmail.com or 0214615181
Ok, don’t quite understand how Charly’s bakery could be the first to do cupcakes in SA? Cupcakes were being made yonks ago … our granny’s used to make them. Am I missing something here?