The fabulous Men of Cake

Alexia Santamaria meets three of Auckland’s fabulous Men of Cake.

The cake scene in New Zealand has changed enormously over the past decade. We’ve gone from Nana’s homely banana cakes with chocolate icing (still a classic) to multi-tiered works of art – elegantly adorned with edible flowers, glossy ganache and vibrant freezedried fruit.

Well-known outlets like The Caker and Bluebells Cakery have been the frontrunners in this revolution of deliciousness, which has largely been dominated by women – but now there’s a rising tide of baking blokes.

Bertrand Jang, Sweet & Me

Bertrand Jang struggles to remember a time when he didn’t think about cooking and baking.

‘‘I remember the first cake I ever baked – I must have been four, and I’m pretty sure it was awful, but my parents smiled and ate it – and were so, so proud of me,’’ he recalls.

‘‘I still remember the feeling, that we ate this thing I had made, as a family, and I just loved the sense of happiness I had brought to everyone. I knew I wanted to cook for people for a living from very early on.’’

And that’s exactly what he did, biding time at primary and high school until he could attend cooking school and become a chef.

‘‘I just loved the whole process of preparing food. Some of my best memories of growing up in Fiji are when people got together to cook – the jokes, the gossip... The eating is all finished so quickly, it’s everything that comes before that makes it so amazing.’’

After his studies, Jang worked in Rarotonga for six years, before moving to New Zealand.

He heard about a new programme called The Kitchen Project at a Christmas party, and learned it was for people who wanted to start a food business. He got into the first cohort, and it was all go from there.

‘‘I could see I had this great opportunity to showcase amazing Pacific ingredients to people who might not know about them,’’ he says.

But the journey wasn’t all smooth, and Jang learned a few early lessons. ‘‘I turned up for my first market with my signs written on paper bags and banana leaves on my stand, and my biggest bula smile, but at an Auckland French market I must have looked like such a country boy,’’ he laughs. ‘‘They avoided me like I was a rotten fish!’’

But things soon changed and just eight months later he found himself opening the doors to Sweet & Me with friend and business partner Lizie Koroivulaono.

People now flock to the Onehunga store for coconut buns, pineapple pie, Koko Samoa lamingtons and chic Pacific twists on sweets like banoffee pie or chocolate caramel slice.

‘‘We’ve come a long way and, even though it’s hard work, I still love the act of making food for others and bringing joy,’’ he says.

‘‘I have had Pacific nanas who are 70 or 80 years old saying that an e´ clair or pineapple pie reminds them of their mother’s baking. It really doesn’t get any better than that.’’

Tuakana Mata (Mike), Masters Cakes

Tuakana Mata, or Mike, as he’s known to most, didn’t have any childhood aspirations to bake.

‘‘I really just fell into this,’’ says the caker who has gone from working as a cleaner at Mt Smart stadium to running a thriving cake business.

‘‘I left school at 14, worked in retail and cleaning and didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I actually quit my cleaning job at 25 and pretty much became a bum. Living at home and doing nothing. I’d never really baked, but my mum asked me to help her one day when she was making sweets for one of my siblings’ school galas, and it was hard to ignore how quickly it sold. We realised it was a way to make extra money so started doing some other galas and events too.’’

It was a bout of terrible weather that transformed Mike’s gala baking into a proper business. He had baked a lot for a fair and the weather was so awful that no-one came.

‘‘I was having a pity party and had no idea what to do with all this stuff. A lady told me about a Facebook page where people sold food, so I checked it out and within an hour of posting it, it was all gone.’’

Mata began baking for sale three days a week, and it sold out every time. As his skills increased, he turned his hand to a birthday cake for his niece. ‘‘People asked Mum where she got it, and she said I made it – and it really just went from there.’’

Before he knew it he was making bespoke cakes for a living. Mata moved into his shop in New Lynn in 2018, and has been going strong ever since.

‘‘I often wonder what would have happened if it hadn’t rained that day.’’

Roderick Crichton, Roddy’s Bespoke Cakery

Looking at social media for Roddy’s Bespoke Cakery, you’d be forgiven for thinking baking is Roderick Crichton’s full-time job. But it’s actually more of a side hustle for the Ministry of Education learning and behaviour specialist.

While he’s contemplated making it a full-time career, he loves the variety of his life, and prefers to keep things manageable.

‘‘I only do a limited amount of cakes every month because I want to retain the joy of the experience, but people keep telling their friends, so the orders keep coming,’’ says Crichton, who first fell in love with baking and cake decoration when he was very young.

‘‘A lady I grew up with was the most incredible cake decorator, and I was fascinated by it. I guess I kind of learned by osmosis from watching her.

‘‘Then of course YouTube popped up, and I could watch tutorials and learn from them. There were definitely plenty of disasters along the way but each time I learned and improved.’’ Crichton still remembers the first time he decorated a cake – a buttercream-iced creation with flowers – with help from his favourite mentor. ‘‘I was hooked from there. I felt so much pride seeing the joy it brought to the person I was making it for.’’

For Crichton, baking and decorating cakes is about much more than butter, sugar, eggs and flour – it’s a ‘‘creative outlet’’.

He says it’s therapeutic to concentrate on making something beautiful, and describes it as a ‘‘kind of mindfulness’’.

‘‘It’s actually been huge for me on so many fronts. Being planned and organised hasn’t been my forte in life, and making cakes has taught me to prepare well – and to be patient, also not my natural forte´ ! It’s definitely fair to say cake is my happy place.’’

Find more tasty ideas in Sunday magazine with sweet treats from bakers Jordan Rondel and Erin Clarkson ... and Sam Mannering’s guide to better bred bruschetta