Polokwane baking buddies: Jackie and Marieta
Two housewives from the city are putting their baking skills to good use.
POLOKWANE – Jackie Jones and her friend Marieta Kruger bake and sell biscuits from their homes to earn a few extra rands.
“We are neighbours and close friends. We’ve both received compliments for our baked goods and one day we just decided to start baking for money. It’s great because we’re doing something we enjoy while earning an income,” Marieta explains.
They say the biscuits they bake and decorate are for special occasions such as birthday parties and weddings. They started selling their biscuits at the Polokwane Show and Music Festival and intend on selling more at school tuck shops. According to Jackie, because the decorations take time to perfect and the ingredients are expensive, they cannot produce their biscuits in bulk. “It takes about three days to make one biscuit and the shell life is not very long. They only last between six and eight weeks. Therefore we only make them on order,” she explains.
They’ve received orders from Mokopane and even Cape Town. Apart from the biscuits, the ladies also make cakes and cupcakes on order.
“Decorating isn’t difficult but you need to concentrate. It’s an art, you need to have natural talent as you can’t always use stencils, most of the decorations we do are by free-hand,” Jackie explains. They can make different cartoon characters such as Minions and Spongebob Squarepants, and any other design their clients ask for.
“We make it our mission to deliver whatever our clients need,” Marieta says.
