New Zealander Jordan Rondel got hooked on baking as a young girl visiting her grandparents in Paris, inspired by watching them bake simple tarts at home and by gazing at the artful cakes and pastries that filled the cases of every corner patisserie. In 2010, she opened The Caker, a made-to-order cake salon in Auckland, immersing herself in every aspect of the business and finding joy in transforming carefully selected ingredients into decadent new products. The business grew quickly into one of the country’s leading cake companies. Fast forward to 2020, and now Jordan co-owns The Caker with her sister Anouk, and they have a team of 13 working alongside them. Their ethos is simple: cakes should taste even better than they look, and that is what The Caker has become known for.
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The Caker team launched their Cake Kits in New Zealand in 2013, hoping to reshape the way consumers think of baking mixes as supermarket-based, highly processed products with basic flavor options. They were determined to create an accessible yet luxurious baking kit that could double as a beautiful gift option, and that is exactly what they created. The Cake Kit ($25) range is now available in the U.S., and currently includes three flavors (Matcha Cherry, Flourless Dark Chocolate Gold Leaf, and Lemon Strawberry Poppyseed), all of which are based on best-selling recipes from The Caker’s menu and available to purchase online at The-Caker.com. Each kit includes carefully curated high-quality ingredients from the same suppliers that are used in The Caker’s bakery every day.
I asked Jordan if I could try one of her kits – she sent me the Flourless Dark Chocolate Gold Leaf and the Matcha Cherry. Chocolate-lover that I am, I decided to make the flourless chocolate one first, and was impressed by the quality of the ingredients as well as the ease of preparation. I used the powdered mix and chocolate chips that were included in the kit, adding my own melted butter and eggs to the batter. The kit even includes a sheet of 24K gold leaf, used to garnish the top of the cake – you can be sure Duncan and Betty don’t have that in the box! The finished cake was rich, extra chocolaty, and had a moist and beautiful texture and elegant look. The kit itself would make a lovely hostess/host gift, or as a foolproof way to make a quick but impressive dessert when you’re pressed for time. I’m really looking forward to trying the Matcha Cherry flavor, which, with its green and red hues, will be perfect for the holidays. Check them out at The-Caker.com.
