Cake making now a form of art
Molefe left social worker job to follow a sweeter career
Just as party themes and celebrations have evolved, so have the cakes.
And what’s a party without cake? Gone are the days of rushing to the convenience store to get mass-produced cake to celebrate. Nowadays, cakes are serious business. Lucia Molefe, co-owner of Mokgalaka Creation, a confectionery business, said the current trend is for cakes “with chocolate, caramel, royal icing
or chocolate ganache dripping on the sides of the cake, with some fresh flowers and maybe chocolates and strawberries – almost like a buttercream type of cake with those drippings. People love that at the moment.”
“This is trending for birthdays and even weddings. We didn’t have that type of cake in the past. I mean, times are changing. There’ll be a cake that is in the market that people like and over a year or two it will fade away; something else will come up.” Molefe said there was also a trend for semi-naked cakes that are not covered in fondant . Molefe has been in the cake making business for 13 years. She left her job as a social worker at the department of social development and says she fell in love with the artistry of it all. “I love art, it’s the love of artwork more than anything. I’ve always been good with my hands, I believe... “I remember in one of the organisations that we were from the funding department they were doing icing flowers so to me it was just something else to see a flower that looked so real. It looked like a fresh flower and it was something that was made by hand. “It’s a love of artwork, the love of creating things with my hands that drove me away from my full-time employment to what I’m doing right now” she said.
In her former job Molefe dealt with a lot of social issues and even counselled couples. She still sees couples now, albeit for a far happier reason. “Now I’m dealing with the same people – couples – but in a different way. Now I’m serving them to create their dream cake, their dream wedding. “We are part of creating their dream wedding journey through a cake,” she said.