The Zimbabwe Cake Expo is set to celebrate its 10th anniversary during this year’s edition of the show. This was revealed by the organisers, Zim Events in a statement issued by its Founder and event producer, Farai Chakabuda this week.
According to Chakabuda, the event started with the hosting of its first edition on 17 June 2012. Pioneer exhibitors included Baker’s Wallet, Icing Blooms, Cake Zone and Midsyl Cake Magic which have become household names in the Zimbabwean cake-baking industry.
Over the years the event has grown in stature and has become an annual event held every November. This year’s event, which is special because of its anniversary status, will be held on 26 November at the Harare Club in Harare.
“The vision was to bring cake creatives under one roof in order for them to showcase their cake designs and artistry skills to a broad target audience. This has become a reality as the event has witnessed a gradual growth in terms of professional cake creatives participating as exhibitors and individuals attending as guests,” Chakabuda said.
The event organisers realised that in addition to creating a platform for cake-baking professionals and enthusiasts to foreground their skills and products, they needed to attract enough visitors to the subsequent editions. They introduced cake tasting as a major highlight of the event.
“While keeping in line with the event vision, the main objective was identified as creating a physical marketplace for the professional cake creatives and prospective customers, a secondary objective was identified to create an event activity that serves as an attraction to the attendees.
“The cake-tasting activity is not only a leisure highlight of the event but also an educational feature in that the guests and adjudicators are able to grade and critique the various cake flavours and designs displayed and offered by the professional cake creatives. The feedback given to the creatives serves as learning insights as score sheets with specific criteria are used in critiquing and grading the flavour and textures of cakes and other baked products,” she said.
Chakabuda highlighted that the 10-year journey was not plain sailing as she and her team encountered and overcame a number of challenges.
“It is important to note that during the past nine years challenges in hosting the event were met and methods of adjusting to the challenges were established. Such challenges included budget constraints, anomalies during event preparation and the growth of the number of professional cake creatives participating as exhibitors,” Chakabuda gave out.
The Zim Cake Expo boss also noted that the process of finding solutions for the various challenges they faced gave birth to some synergies with other stakeholders in the industry.
“In handling the challenge of budget constraints, synergies were created with event partners and event sponsors. A long-standing synergy was created with printing and design houses such as KenChris Stationery since 2018,” she said.
The event was not spared the vagaries of the Covid-19 pandemic which hit the country in 2020 and 2021.
“The eighth edition of the Zim Cake Expo was hosted during the era of the pandemic. The organisers ensured strict COVID protocols were incorporated and adhered to before, during and after the presentation of the event,” Chakabuda said.
Although the pandemic is not yet over, the partial relaxation of the pandemic safety protocols enabled more exhibitors and visitors to participate at the show in 2021.
“With the announcement pertaining to the ease of the lockdown restrictions, the ninth edition (of the event) witnessed a larger number of professional cake creatives participating. The number of guest attendees also increased,” said Chakabuda.
As part of the event’s 10th anniversary celebrations, Zim Events is giving a discount on stall charges to returning exhibitors while visitors to the show will benefit from door prizes. The first 10 visitors to walk through the venue doors will get a free full cake each while the next lot of 10 will receive a baker’s product hamper each.
Asked about her secrets for success, Chakabuda responded that: “Focus, consistency and determination against all odds have been the foundation of the growth of the Zim Cake Expo.”
Buoyed by the success of the Zim Cake Expo, Chakabuda and her team have set their sights on conquering the continent. She hinted at coming up with an African cake event although she indicated that she was not ready to disclose its finer details yet.