Her business came about by chance because of Covid.
If music be the language of love and food the manifestation of it, then baking beautiful cakes must be the art of sculpting romance itself.
East Rand baker Michelle Liebenberg has it down to a fine art. It’s eye candy, deliciousness and breathtaking at the same time. Hyperbole, deserved.
Liebenberg called her business the Adventure Cake Company because, she said: “I didn’t want another sugary name like delicious or sweet or something. Adventure Cake Company made sense because I make cakes for birthdays, weddings, divorces anything.
“And it was my new adventure too, because I never planned to have a business. I was too scared. Then it happened.”
It’s has been an adventure since Covid drew the line between two careers for her. Before the pandemic, she worked for a large industrial patisserie.
“I never saw the outside, never saw my family, the hours were extremely long,” she said. During the middle-stages of lockdown she started getting orders for kids parties, birthdays and the like over WhatsApp.
“And then one day I realised, I now have a business,” she added. It was happenstance, but she has never looked back.
‘One day I realised now, I have a business’
Liebenberg lives and works in her specially kitted out industrial baking kitchen from a smallholding in Benoni. There, her family’s sheep graze lazily beside Jersey cows and a couple of horses and chickens.
“It’s a wonderful environment to work in,” she said. “When things get a bit crazy and I need to time out, I just have to step outside to feel the grass under my feet and get grounded again.”
Baking has always been her calling, it seems. She said she started while she was still a youngster. Baking doesn’t run in the family. Most members of her family are either in engineering or avionics.
“I thought I would do something proper like that,” she said. “But I was already selling cakes in primary school to family members. I loved it. I was always arty and crafty and decided to keep doing what I enjoy.” She followed her heart and studied engineering of a somewhat different kind.
“I’ve made children’s cakes. Paw Patrol, castles, cute things. But I’ve also had some strange requests,” she said.
“I have baked giant penises. One was sixty centimetres long for a man’s retirement party. It even worked. I had to dust the cake in front of a kitchen full of men. Imagine that. Awkward, but I hardly ever say no. Those are the cakes that keep it fun.”
From cartoon characters to naughty cakes
She likes it when cakes do more than look pretty and sometimes, like with the penis cake, builds in a soupcon of technology.
“I enjoy sculpting. I’ve made cars with lights and hidden speakers that connect to your phone so they rev like Ferraris. I built a Christmas village that glowed like a snowy hill. I love it when people ask if it is really a cake. That’s the reaction I want.”
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When Liebenberg’s not baking, she does not plonk on the couch and watch television.
“I paint, I sew, I garden. I camp whenever I can. My mom always told me if you can read you can do anything. So, when I see something that I like, I learn about it, try to make it. I do a bit of everything.”
Her dream is to open a shop. “I want it to be Victorian in feel. Dark, cosy, with books, coffee and cakes. I’ll sell my crafts there too. At night it will be a speakeasy bar. That’s the big plan.”
Until then, each week is another episode in an unfolding adventure. “There is always something new. People come with wild ideas, and I get to make them real. I love it. I don’t get tired of it. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
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