When mother’s get it all wrong

When mothers get it wrong, we’re in big trouble. Especially if it’s the birthday cake for your 8yr old son. We received an email 2 weeks ago for an order for a zip lining theme cake. The mother was adamant that the cake must have an icing figure zip lining from tree to tree. We played around with a few ideas that could work taking gravity into account and the weight of an icing figure…

Friday morning the cake is delivered, later in the morning we get a call from the mother with a child in the background clearly distressed. There is a big problem with the cake! Possibly the worst call to receive, your mind races through all the cakes that were delivered that day and what possibly could have gone wrong. Did the bird on the top of the 3^rd tier fall off and take out all the other decorations? Did the fairies head fall off? You start to panic inside but try and stay as calm as possible to find out which cake and what happened?

Oh the cake is stunning she says, its just, she got the wrong theme!! Her son is having a tobogganing party and the cake should have a child in a toboggan cart coming down a ramp. Her son is distraught and can we please change the cake, now, she’s on her way? We could have made such a great toboggan theme cake and so much less stressful as well.

I think overall we did good in the adaptation from zip lining to toboggan but it could have been so different. Mum’s and Dad’s, you have got to get the basic theme right to begin with, then, and only then is it safe to leave it up to us to make the best possible cake!!

Cakes for corn snakes

For a while I have been looking for a new display unit for the cakes on display in the shop. People really enjoy coming into the shop and actually seeing the cakes that we make as opposed to just looking at the photo albums. We have always had some cakes on display but they get grubby pretty quickly and of course there is the problem of them being touched often and broken. I eventually found a company that makes up shop displays and received their quote with a picture of the new unit. Besides that it was very expensive, I was concerned that it wouldn’t actually suit the style of shop. Make no mistake it was a stunning unit, very neat and clean lines with a light fitted to showcase the cakes even better. It was just too neat and modern for our style shop.

 I had shown the girls the new display and we were discussing it when Peta says “that actually looks like a vivarium”. For anyone else who doesn’t know what a vivarium is, it’s a glass front reptile house that looks like a display unit. We found one for sale on Gumtree in the area – comes with UV light, snake log, suitable for corn snake, fortunately did not include snake. Added bonus; less than a third of the price. We gave the unit a good clean and left a container of vanilla essence inside for a while to get rid of the reptile smell while we got busy on the new cakes. I always knew bicarb removed odours but vanilla essence is far more efficient. We replaced the UV light with a florescent light and filled the new display unit with our cakes.    

 It looks amazing! The display cakes are stunning and kept dust free. We have tried to make a variety of designs to showcase just how creative we can be and for you to actually see the attention to detail. I hope when you next come into the shop to order a cake these cakes will inspire and delight you. 

St Lukes Hospice Celebrates 30yrs of Caring

On Saturday 4^th September 2010 St Luke’s Hospice celebrated their 30^th year of caring for the community of Cape Town by setting up a stand at the Foodcourt of Cavendish Square, where beautiful birthday cakes created by various bakeries were on display.

The public were invited to vote for their favourite cake in exchange for a donation to St Luke’s Hospice. One chosen entrant would win the cake they had voted for.

First prize for best cake went to The Chocolate Moose for our amazing detailed 3D design cake of the St Luke’s Hospice House. We are very flattered that our cake won on the day, we took a lot of time planning what we were going to make and how best to showcase their stunning old building which is so well known to Cape Town. The service that st Lukes Hospice provide is much needed and I hope a greater awareness of this was made through their efforts on Saturday.

Congratulations to Monique Brandt, the winner of the house, I hope you have a big family as that was a huge cake. Enjoy, with compliments from the Moose. To the cake shops that pulled out on Friday and guest speaker of the day who didn’t show up, a huge disappointment guys.  

 http://www.stlukes.co.za/default.asp

30 Years of Service

St Luke’s Hospice provides palliative care to people who are approaching the end of their lives. A team of skilled professional staff and volunteers improves the quality of life of these patients and their families. This is given, irrespective of the patient’s ability to pay for the service.

St Luke’s Hospice has been caring for people for 30 years now! As part of a fundraising venture, they are hosting an event at Cavendish Square over the 3^rd and 4^th September 2010. SPRING TIME !!!

The Chocolate Moose is donating a special cake to be on display and will be won by a lucky ticket holder. Please make an effort to get to the centre and give your support to St Luke’s Hospice whose care and commitment is unsurpassed. More details on the event to follow…….

Moose migration

The Moose are migrating to their cozy beds and having a lie in. The shop will be closing for 3 weeks from Monday 12^th July, we will re-open on Monday 2^nd August.

We’ve been in the new premises two and a half years and its time to de-clutter and renovate. I am so looking forward to clearing out and fixing up the place, feel like a kid again. New stock arrives from Wilton, USA soon and will be ready and unpacked when we re-open.

The staff will be working flexi hours so will still be making your celebration cakes to order. It’s a quiet time of year for business, although the shop will be closed please leave your contact details on the answering machine 021 789-2891, or email cakes@chocolatemoose.co.za and we will be sure to get back to you soon for your cake orders.

Everyone still loves Noddy & friends

While everyone else is watching football, the small people are enjoying Noddy again. We have had a rush on Noddy cakes, the controversy of Big Ears aside, its so good to see kids still enjoying the good old favorites. Making Big Ears house as the cake was a pleasant change from the usual Noddy car cake. Who wouldn’t want Noddy jumping out of their present cake? Happy Birthday to all the little people whose birthday’s are still being celebrated despite the football craze.

It’s World War 2 all over again!!

This world cup has tuned out like World War 2. The French threw in the towel, the Italians surrendered early, the USA arrives at the last minute and the English are left to fight the Germans!!

Its been a very exciting tournament so far with plenty of surprises. The Jabulani balls are a hit and even though Italy is out, you can still eat cake.

Calling all dads, check out may balls ;)

Leave the socks and coffee mug for another year, here is something all dads would love to have on Fathers Day! If they are keen on soccer or not, they are still proudly South African, and the flag on a ball is fun and fresh! If your dad is just not into footballs, a decadent box of truffles, and the Sunday papers, will make his day special.

We have limited stock available in the shop so it may be best to call us to ensure we have that special ball available for your special dad. Individually packaged balls are roughly 10cm diametre @ R100 each. Box of 9 x truffles @ R40.

The Moose has GEES!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just in time for the start of the SA vs. Mexico game, the Moose has Gees! The flag wrapped on the bonnet has caused quite a lot of excitement driving around doing deliveries. It’s fantastic to see so many SA flags on cars. *We are all Proudly South African* Good luck Bafana Bafana, we are all behind you.

Size Matter!!

April has turned out to be quite a busy month with all our new stuff arriving. We have finally received our branded cake boxes and what a long journey that turned out to be. We started the process last year, 2 September 2009, playing around with the design of the cake boxes and colours. By 13 November that was all done and then just to print.

Our problem with cake boxes has always been our rectangle cake so we had a special box made just for our cakes. This will be fabulous when they arrive….. The incorrect rectangle box size was made so we are still waiting for those. Size sure does count when the box is 5cm too small for the cake.

All good things come with time and we are very chuffed with the new cake boxes. We think they add a wonderful finishing touch to our beautiful cakes.