Ready, Steady, Bake!

Right. So what was formerly my braai and gaming room already features no television and no couch, three table surfaces and no chairs, two fridges, two chest freezers, wall shelving and a big storage cupboard, meaning that the only thing left on the list in order to transform it proper into a super home baking environment was a big oven.

Well not anymore my friend, not anymore.

Last week I extended my investment into Chantelle’s booming Cookies & Cakes venture by heading out to Tafelberg Furnishers in Somerset West and purchasing for her a nice and big, Defy 831 Multi-function Thermofan oven (R8,000), a major step up from the little Defy kitchen oven that she currently has to make do with!

Having done the measurements and planning up front, basically what this means is that she can immediately jump from baking 24 cupcakes in twenty minutes right up to 72 per twenty minutes by running both ovens simultaneously, with that number potentially increasing by another 24 should we be able to source a third rack for the new oven. So a massive increase in production then which in turn should help her churn out her existing orders in record time, never mind the fact that we now have the extra capacity to go out and pick up some additional supply work as well.

Her dad Monty (who has probably worked with electricity for more years than what I’ve been alive) and I installed the oven on Saturday afternoon, setting up the oven and isolation switch directly under the distribution board (which happens to sit in the braai room – mainly because in the blueprints the space was originally the garage), thus making the job a lot easier than what it could perhaps have been, and I have to say, the whole operation was a lot smoother and simpler than what I had anticipated anyway – plus I learned a great deal in the process! :)

Anyway, the oven is awesome, Chantelle is happy, and I can finally stop worrying about what would happen to Chantelle if her one and only oven had packed up in the middle of a big order.