Babette's Bakery

Baking in Gauteng means dealing with the highveld's dry air, temperature swings between seasons, and the challenge of keeping moisture in your crumb while your exterior browns properly. Load shedding adds another layer — timing fermentation around power cuts, managing oven heat when electricity is uncertain, keeping sourdough cultures alive without consistent temperature control. Babette's Bakery works with these constraints daily. The consistency of a good loaf requires understanding how altitude affects rising times, how to source reliable flour in a supply chain that's been unpredictable, and how to maintain quality when the infrastructure around you isn't always stable. These are the practical realities that separate a bakery that simply goes through motions from one that actually knows its craft.