Father's Day in New Zealand falls on the first Sunday of September, and here is the part most Christchurch gift guides will not tell you: a great many of the places you would want to buy from are shut that day, and we are one of them. We are closed Sundays as a rule. That is not a problem so much as a scheduling detail, and once you know it, the whole thing gets easier rather than harder.
The plan is Saturday
Everything made to order is collected on the Saturday. We are open 10am to 3pm that day, and anything you want on the Sunday table needs to be in your hands before we close. Order online and the date picker at checkout will only offer you dates the kitchen can actually meet, so you do not have to guess. Whole cakes need two days' notice, and a few of the larger desserts need three.
Collecting the day before is the better plan regardless of what day the occasion falls on. A cake sits happily in the fridge overnight in our own packaging with no change to taste or texture, and you are not spending the morning of the event in a car.
Why a travel cake suits this particular occasion
We call the bundt and loaf range travel cakes, and the name is literal. They are sturdy, they carry no delicate frosting, they do not need refrigerating, and they survive being taken somewhere and cut without ceremony. For a Sunday lunch at someone's house, or a cake that sits on the bench all afternoon while people come back to it, that is a more useful object than a four-layer centrepiece.
The Peanut Butter Cake is the one to look at first if the person you are buying for has a sweet tooth and no patience for anything fussy — a crunchy peanut butter cake under peanut butter ganache. It contains peanuts, plainly, so it is the wrong choice if anyone at the table avoids them. The Marble Chocolate Cake is double chocolate and about as universally liked as cake gets. The Jaffa Orange Chocolate Cake pairs orange sponge and chocolate chips under dark ganache, and if the flavour combination provokes an argument at your table, there is a whole post about that argument. The Cuca Banana Cake carries a buttery streusel top from southern Brazil and is the least sweet of the four.
All of them come two ways: a 20cm loaf at $35, which serves eight, or a 25cm bundt, which serves sixteen. The whole range sits in tea cakes and loaves.
If it is a bigger table
For a proper gathering, the specialty layer cakes come at 15cm serving 12 to 15, 20cm serving 20 to 25, and 25cm serving 30 to 35. Count heads before you choose, because they go further than people expect. The Thunder Chocolate Cake is the one to reach for if the brief is simply the most chocolate available.
The better gift is usually the one you turn up to
A cake handed over is a nice thing. A cake eaten together is a better one, and it is worth saying that the strongest thing on our menu for this occasion is not a cake at all. The Signature Chocolate Fondue is made to order in about ten minutes, and it is built for two sets of hands: warm Belgian chocolate with house-toasted marshmallow, a mini croissant, cookie and brownie pieces and fresh fruit. Bring him in on the Saturday, order that and two coffees from our C4 Coffee Co espresso bar, and the gift is the afternoon rather than the parcel.
If he is the sort who would rather learn something, the chocolate class covers tempering properly, and a class taken together is a considerably better present than a class taken alone. Everything bookable sits on our experiences page.
Leaving it late
If it is already the Friday, the cabinet does not need notice. Walk in and take a cake slice, something from the mini dessert counter, or a packaged Honey Cake — spiced honey cake with dulce de leche, dipped in dark chocolate, and the one thing we make that travels in a pocket. A gift card works on anything, including the classes.
Ordering and collection
Two days for most whole cakes, three for the larger desserts, seven for petit fours. Collection only, from our patisserie inside The Welder at 20 to 26 Welles Street in the central city — we do not deliver or courier, and that is deliberate. We are open 10am to 6pm Tuesday to Friday and 10am to 3pm Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday. The full range is on the menu, and if you are weighing up sizes our guide to ordering a cake in Christchurch walks through servings and lead times, while getting a cake home in one piece covers the drive.
