Perfection by confection

CREATING the perfect blend of art and cake, Richards Bay’s cake expert Gwendolyn Naidoo has been using her hobby to make sweet dreams come true for her family, friends and customers.

Her love for baking started out as a favourite pastime during her schooling years, and after completing a cake decorating course in 2013 her part-time passion evolved into a busy and thriving business, Cake Splendor by Gwen V Naidoo.

A qualified chartered accountant and auditor, Naidoo works full-time at a well established business in Empangeni and spends her evenings and weekends making sweet things happen in her cake studio at her Brackenham home.

Specialising in a variety of cakes and cupcakes, the young baker admits to being a perfectionist by nature and can sometimes spend hours ensuring that her creations offer pure bliss in every bite.

On her list of favourites are children’s novelty cakes and cupcakes and she enjoys to think outside the cake box with her designs and creativity.

Her first novelty creation was a racing-themed cake for her brother-in-law and she soon had her own personal ‘fan club’ with orders streaming in from family and friends.

Extraordinary

Her cakes have grown in popularity and in orders too. A couple of her prized works have been a five-tier chandelier wedding cake and a lace-themed wedding cake.

‘The five-tier cake took many hours and my brother had to help assemble it at the venue, as the cake was taller than me, those minutes waiting to see if the cake would stand were nerve-wrecking.

‘The lace cake was also bombarded by a string of hiccups and I had to contend with power cuts, but after 15 hours the cake was finally done.

‘I had to work by candlelight in the early hours of the morning, and then was lost twice in Mkuze on route to deliver it,’ she laughs.

‘Every experience in the kitchen has been a good one, as each order is something new and different and so completing every order is always an achievement.

‘Although I prefer to work in silence, I sometimes look forward to a little company for some encouragement and to keep me going.

‘This hobby requires a lot of attention to detail and despite this being a very time consuming task that can, at times, be frustrating because of the perfectionist in me, the appreciation and feedback from a happy client makes it all worthwhile.

‘I am grateful to everyone who took a chance on me in those early days, without them I would not have been able to improve my skills.’

Community outreach

Driven by community involvement and outreach, Naidoo enjoys partnering in charity projects.

Her business has supported The Cupcakes for a Cause drive to raise funds for Baby Rhyah Sai, diagnosed with multiple medical conditions and Cerebral Palsy.

‘I would like to do more with my talent and help those in need, after all what good is a skill or talent if it is not used to enhance the lives of those around us.’