Angel’s Kiss is a family conceptualized, owned and run business…by Dad, Mom and Angel. Funnily enough he doesn’t have a sweet tooth, or bone in his body (just his great big heart). Both in the IT industry, not getting younger and newly married we bought a small General Dealer’s Store in Witsand, Breede River mouth in 2003 - while on honeymoon. Any shop owner will tell you, no matter how much milk
you order, it’s either way too little or way too much. Considering the wrath of a customer who hasn’t had their morning cuppa it’s best to err on the side of too much. Small shops in tiny towns don’t have the luxury of returning expired stock; so, ever creative in the kitchen, Dad learnt to make buttermilk. But what do you do with litres and litres of buttermilk in a town with some 300 (mostly retired) permanent residents? Fortunately, the shop also had a bakery and Dad had learnt how to bake the BEST BREAD EVER, rolls, milk tart, lemon meringue, croissants and Chelsea buns. I guess it was looking at those loaves of bread that inspired him to invent his buttermilk rusk recipe. And best of all – rusks do not expire (not within hours or days anyway.) Angel was about 3 years old – perfect rusk munching age! She claimed his rusks to be “the yummiest rusks ever Daddy”. So we put some packets in the shop, and our favourite customers gave him the thumbs up too. They made suggestions – a breakfast rusk for something in the tummy before having to swallow a handful of pills, getting old ain’t for sissies. Then we heard spreading peanut butter on the rusks adds that little bit extra protein, flavour and fills the tummy just right. So our artisan and ever helpful baker created a Peanut Butter rusk, it’s not on top – it’s inside. After 7 years of shop-keeping, it was time for a change. And so it was decided. Angel would taste and inspire. Dad would develop recipes and bake. Mom would sell and deliver (with Angel in tow of course). Dad named his creations after his inspiration – and Angel’s Kiss was born. As we gathered outlets and sales improved (mostly due to the cute little girl, no doubt) our horizons expanded, and so did our dreams. Our first, and now oldest, customer is Dassiesfontein Farmstall (on the N2 between Caledon and Botrivier). About a year later Checkers fortuitously ran their Homemade Supplier Programme and we were lucky enough (and delicious enough) to be selected as a supplier under their Home Bakes Programme. Around this time we made a decision to relocate to a more centralised location and fell in love with the most beautiful, but derelict and neglected small holding in Wilderness Heights. And so the fantasy was complete. First priority was building a bakery on the homestead. This is where dad still bakes, and is now experimenting with new recipes designed less along the traditional lines and more along the lines of organic, superfood, banting, vegan, wheat-free, sugar free…..the playing continues. Ofcourse, finding a way to do this and still produce affordable rusks is his greatest challenge of the moment. Other activities on the homestead revolve around becoming a self-sustaining, holistic, organic farm, homestead and bakery. Good, old fashioned, real, whole food, affordable rusks are in our future somewhere (and hopefully yours too).
