The holidays run from Saturday 26 September to Sunday 11 October. That is sixteen days. Most of us have about four days of ideas.
Search for things to do in Christchurch with kids and you get the list you got last term, and the term before that. Here is one that is not on it. We are a patisserie inside The Welder, an 1880s brick building a block south of the Bus Interchange, and our kitchen is open to the room. A seven-year-old will stand and watch someone temper chocolate for a lot longer than you would expect.
Four days a week, not seven
Plan around this first. We are open ten to six Tuesday through Friday, and ten to three on Saturday. We are closed Sundays and Mondays as a rule, so each week of the break gives you four weekdays and a Saturday morning.
Getting here is the easy part. Seven minutes' walk south of the Bus Interchange, parking across the road and behind the building, and bike racks by the side entrance if the weather holds.
The bit where they make something
Sitting still is a hard ask on day nine. The Mini-Cake Decorating Challenge puts a station in front of every person at the table. Each one gets their own freshly baked mini cake, a palette of colours and the same professional garnishes the kitchen uses, and up to ninety minutes to out-decorate everybody else. No experience needed. Nobody cleans up but us.
It runs Tuesday to Friday between eleven and four, at $65 a head, for groups of four to twelve. That lower number is the useful detail: you cannot book it for one child and one adult. Ring the other family, the cousins, the two kids from down the road whose parents are also out of ideas. Six of you turns a Wednesday into an event, and the adults sit at the same table doing the same thing rather than watching from a bench. Bigger and private formats live on the group experiences page.
A whole cake each, and nobody has to share
Some days you just need an hour indoors. A mini cake is one serving, which means a child gets an entire cake to themselves rather than a slice off somebody else's. They are from $9. The ones that get chosen without any adult input are the Double Choc, the Pink Lemonade and the Biscoff, and they also come in trays of six and twelve if you are feeding a houseful at home.
The room helps. Tables move, so push two together and you have space for six. There are low tables for children and high chairs, and the dog can come, which is why there is a water bowl by the door and the table legs are metal for clipping a lead to. Order a hot chocolate and the question back is New York or Paris, which is a real difference and worth letting them choose between. The thickshakes are the other thing worth arguing about, and most hot and cold drinks can be made with a dairy-free milk.
If one of the children avoids gluten, the Caprese and the Snickers mini cakes are made with no added gluten, as is the Brazilian cheese scone. Our kitchen is small and without exclusive production areas for all of our different recipes, so traces may occur, and nothing here is guaranteed safe for severe coeliac disease.
If you are leaving town
Half the city goes somewhere for the second week. The bundt and loaf range are what we call travel cakes, and they are built for exactly that: no delicate frosting, no refrigeration, sturdy enough to sit in the back of a car to Hanmer. A Brazilian Carrot loaf serves eight and the bundt serves sixteen, so count heads before you order, because the numbers are usually larger than people assume. There is more on keeping a cake intact in a warm car if the drive is a long one.
The evening that is not for them
Term ends on Friday 25 September, and that same night we run Patisserie After Dark from six until nine. Plated desserts get tried out there before they ever reach the cabinet, and they sell out, so the date is worth watching for. Find a babysitter for one of the sixteen days. You have earned it.
How to book any of it
Anything in the cabinet you buy on the day, no notice at all. Anything made to order goes through the website, where the date picker only offers dates the kitchen can genuinely meet: two days for most things, three for the larger desserts, a week for petit fours. Collection is in person from The Welder. We do not deliver, which is the reason every cake is handed to you already boxed and steady, and you can collect the day before and keep it in the fridge overnight in our packaging. The FAQ covers sizes and storage, and if a birthday lands mid-break there is a whole piece on that. Just remember the Sunday and Monday: a holiday Tuesday works, a holiday Monday does not.
