The documentary-cum-reality show Charly’s Cake Angels was filmed in
Charly’s Bakery’s pink and white premises in Cape Town. The first episode of Season 1 premiered in the UK on The Good Food Channel last month. The 13-part series stars bakery owner Jacqui Beiss, her daughters Alex and Daniella, and two of their colleagues, Roche and Francis. It was filmed over 10 months last year by Justin Bonello and Peter Gird’s company, Cooked in Africa. It was first shown on SABC3 in September last year, then in Italy, New Zealand and Switzerland. It’s due to be broadcast in Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Dubai soon. Each episode features the team facing a challenge, such as creating a five-tier cake to celebrate the opening of Cape Town’s Design Indaba, creating a cake for visually impaired children which included Braille icing, and creating a cake for the Red Cross Children’s Hospital with an anatomically correct heart as decoration. They are busy filming Season Two.
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| Charly's Bakery with Table Mountain in the background |
The Charly of Charly’s Bakery was Jacqui’s husband and Alex and Daniella’s father, Charly, who died in May after a long illness. When Charly was 16 years old, he worked for a german baker in Swakopmund, Namibia, sweeping the floor, making puff pastry, and washing dishes. Eventually he was allowed to start learning about baking cakes like Black Forest Cake and Sacher Torte. Charly met Jacqui and the couple had two daughters before moving to Cape Town. The first Charly’s was a coffee shop in Thibault Square. It later moved to the V&A Waterfront before becoming the cake bakery in Roeland Street, where it first appeared in its pink and white candy-stripes decor with dancing cupcakes. They intended to operate a wholesale business but soon had to open to the public who were drawn by the baking smells. Three years ago, Charly’s Bakery relocated again, to Canterbury Street in District Six, in the old Beinkinstadt Bookshop (Jewish Bookshop) building which was built in 1901.
