BREAKING. South African cake reality show dumps SABC3 as Charly's Cake Angels moves to the Food Network for its new 2nd season.

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Charly's Cake Angels, the delightful South African cake baking docu-reality show set in Cape Town will no longer be on SABC3 and is moving to the Food Network for the brand new second season from September.

Charly's Cake Angels follows the cake baking adventures of cake momma Jacqui Biess and her cake baker daughters in South Africa's most famous and best cake shop and will no longer be on SABC3 as the show is moving to the Food Network for its second season.

The SABC and SABC3 is losing yet another high-quality local television production which used to be one of its first-run on-air TV properties, and I can reveal that the new first-run second season of Charly's Cake Angels will now start on the Food Network (DStv 175) from 16 September.

New episodes of Charly's Cake Angels will be shown on weekdays at 12:40 and repeated in primetime at 18:30.

TV critics and viewers raved over the well-received Charly's Cake Angels, produced by Cooked in Africa Films, when the first season was shown on SABC3 from the end of 2011. The Food Network subsequently picked up the show and also broadcast the first season globally since September 2012.

Viewers loved the well filmed and colourful drama behind the scenes of Charly's Bakery in Cape Town's Fringe district where Jacqui and her daughters together with a coterie of eccentric and hilarious characters create dazzling cake confectionery.

Production commenced on a second season of Charly's Cake Angels but SABC3 stalled on picking up the show. The Food Network however loved it and decided to take the new second season.

Asked whether SABC3 will be showing the second season of Charly's Cake Angels, Lefa Afrika, SABC3's acting channel head said SABC3 is not currently in any discussions to carry more episodes or seasons of the show.

Programming note: The first season of Charly's Cake Angels coming to the Food Network from Tuesday 25 September at 17:40.

The funny, light, yet emotionally touching South African reality show Charly's Cake Angels which viewers first saw at the end of last year has been picked up by the Food Network (DStv 185) and will start on the food channel on Tuesday 25 September at 17:40.

The delightful show's first season which was a hit with viewers as well as critics, follows Jacqui Biess and her 3 daughters in South Africa's most famous cake bakery, Charly's Bakery in Cape Town.

Charly's Cake Angels has been picked up for a second season earlier this year and is being produced by Justin Bonello's Cooked in Africa.

CAKE ANGEL. Charly Biess from Charly's Bakery and Charly's Cake Angels passes away.

Charly Biess, the man behind the women from South Africa’s most famous cake shop, Charly's Bakery in Cape Town has died. He was 56.


Charly Biess, the owner of Charl'’s Bakery in Canterbury Street passed away this past Friday surrounded by his his family. He leaves behind wife Jacqui and daughters Alexandra, Daniella and Roch.

The famous and beloved bakery, known for its audacious cake creations and delightful confectionary became even more famous when Justin Bonello's Cooked in Africa Films turned his camera lens on the beloved family operation. 

The well-produced reality show Charly's Cake Angels, recently renewed for a second season and executive produced by Bonello and Peter Gird, was shown on SABC3 at the end of 2011. It was an instant viewership hit and garnered critical praise from TV critics.

The bakery which has made cakes for international luminaries from Nelson Mandela to Oprah Winfrey will close at 15:00 every day this week.

BREAKING. Second season of the docu-reality show Charly's Cake Angels to start filming soon.

A second season of Charly's Cake Angels will start filming in Cape Town soon.

The first season of the the docu-reality show following the famous Cape Town cake-baking business, Charly's Bakery, was shown at the end of 2011 on SABC3.

Charly's Cake Angels has been sold internationally and is already showing in New Zealand since January. The delightful show following a mom and her cake-baking daughters has also been bought by LITV in the East, as well as the Food Network with rights for Australia, Europe, the Middle East and the whole of Africa.

Charly's Cake Angels also just got acquired by the Good Food Channel with the UKTV network in the UK having also bought the show.

FIRST LOOK! Charly's Cake Angels preview episode 3: From Paddington Bear and a Cinderella carriage to a heated wedding cake disaster!

This little cutie-pie is turning one year old and it's up to the gals of Charly's Bakery in Charly's Cake Angels today at 16:00 on SABC3 to whizz up a beautiful Paddington Bear. Can they do it?

But there's other major drama waiting in the episode as a customer leaves a three tier wedding cake in the car for 5 hours on a hot day (you have to see what happens!) and it becomes time for ''operation wedding cake emergency''.

There's wedding couple Denzel and Ida who needs a wedding cake at the last minute, someone wants a gruesome skull cake, somebody orders a Cinderella pumpkin carriage cake and there's a boobs cake order as well!

I've watched the next episode of Charly's Cake Angels and let me just tell it's another tumultuous week at that classic cake bakery in the new upcoming episode. While the downstairs section spins out of control because of the deluge of orders and customers, heat creates havoc overnight, as well as for a customer who foolishly leaves a wedding cake in the hot sun for hours and needs help.

And disaster waiting in the boot of a hot car!

Episode 2 recap of Charly's Cake Angels on SABC3: 'It becomes incredibly stressful to get everything out. We're just running.'

The second episode of the hilariously fascinating Charly's Cake Angels (Saturdays, SABC3, 16:00) delivered big time. And I mean that literally.

The cake creators of Charly's Bakery got their biggest single cake order ever, which they also had to go and deliver physically, while the vehicle got ... damaged, in an accident.

The staff worked on the biggest single cake order of their lives which involved them running out of time, having to deal with incorrectly cut cake dial sticks, the wrong green icing colour, and incorrectly cut hardboard base, and a car accident whilst transporting the humongous 5 tier cake and 16 others to the venue.

Daughter Alex was in charge of the cake order for Old Mutual's big green clean cake machine, as some members of the staff started stressing out behind the scenes. But everything worked out in the end after lots of drama.

The two funniest moments? When daughters Alex and Roch added (despite strict instructions from mom Jacqui) some secret, elixir-of-life magical pixie dust icing colour lightening agent to the too dark green icing sugar which changed to the perfect colour. Mom Jacqui came back and went: ''What are you laughing at? Are you telling me it's exactly the same?''

Then there's the dear Joyce who was supposed to watch the biggest cake in the back of the one van as all 17 were carefully transported to the venue. Meanwhile, as you can see ... fast asleep. Joyce, Joyce, Joyce.

Everything turned out fine in the end (despite the car accident).

ALSO READ: Charly's Cake Angels episode 2 preview: 'It's a monsta!'' Drama as the cake girls must make their biggest cake ever.

FIRST LOOK! Charly's Cake Angels episode 2 preview: 'It's a monsta!' Drama as the cake girls must make their biggest cake EVER.

I've watched it and I have a sneak peek of the second episode of Charly's Cake Angels on Saturday at 16:00 on SABC3 in which drama engulfs the Cape Town cakery when an order comes in for the biggest cake they've ever made!

With the dear Frances Belle under tremendous pressure and the general turmoil, will the girls be able to get the biggest cake ever, to the party on time?

As usual, chaos reigns at Charly's Bakery when viewers meet the cake girls in episode two. Then the biggest order ever comes in: 17 cakes for 3 000 people from Old Mutual, one of which is the biggest one they will ever try to make - a 5 tier cake monstrosity that will tower into the sky like a skyscraper.

Poor Frances. ''Look at my hands!'' viewers will hear poor Frances say, who frets as she rolls the doughy chocolate cake icing decorating mix while she makes a Louis Vuittone handbag. ''They don't come easily,'' says the brilliant cake decorator.

Meanwhile (unbelievable) somebody wants a literally ''birth''day cake, with a baby coming out of the mommy giving birth.

''They're always popping things in the basket,'' whispers an exasperated Frances, when she was once again not told about an urgent cake order.

''We haven't ever made a 5 tier cake with a 50 centimetre base. That's seriously big,'' says Frances.

Will they make it?

WARNING. Don't look if you can help it! The colour and the cake creations in Charly's Cake Angels on SABC3 might be too much to handle.

There isn't really words. The audacious opulence and the colour of the cakes on display in just the first episode of the terrific new locally produced reality show Charly's Cake Angels (Saturdays, SABC3, 16:00) is in one word ... epic.

Here's just some of the ''is-this-really-real?'' cakes viewers saw in the first episode of this new reality show in which the cameras venture inside South Africa's most famous Charly's Bakery in Cape Town's Fringe district where Jacqui Biess and her daughters bring to life creative cakes that shouldn't exist, but do.

Ridiculous right? (But in a great way).

ALSO READ: Who are they? Meet the awesome angels from Charly's Cake Angels of SABC3's new local reality show.

ALSO READ: REVIEW: Charly's Cake Angels on SABC3 is light, fluffy and wonderfully decorated with enough sweet stuff on the inside to make for quality television.

ALSO READ: Have your cake and see it too: Charly's Cake Angels on SABC3 is a new locally produced reality show you'll want to see.

ALSO READ: Charly's Cake Angels Ep.1 recap: ''Oh dear.They're forever calling me downstairs. And they get so irate if I don't run.''

HILARIOUS. Who are they? Meet the awesome angels from Charly's Cake Angels, SABC3's new local reality show.

The place is already famous, in fact it's South Africa's most famous cake bakery. Now the girls inside Charly's Bakery in the Fringe district in Cape Town is set to become as famous as the pink and white striped building as cameras follow them in the new reality show Charly's Cake Angels, Saturdays at 16:00 on SABC3.

So. Who are these angels? Meet the main characters that viewers will get to know better over the next couple of weeks in this hilarious reality show with surprising heart.

First there's mom Jacqui. Jewish. It means total control. Total control over her daughters of course. Because sometimes that Frances in the upstairs seems to do things that Jacqui isn't aware of and therefore can't control. But more about the dear Frances further down. Jacqui is a veritable tornado of energy, sociability, connectedness, ideas, and capacity. Also she's of ample bosom. Not my words, but out of the mouth of one of her own daughters. Who should have more respect because mother is the one putting the cake, uhm, bread on the table.

Then there's Dani. Calm, cool, collected. Has part ownership of the building (was part of a ''bribe'' by mom Jacqui). Hence, can't leave. Works with precision like a Hyundai factory floor worker, can decorate 5 000 cupcakes in 5 minutes flat.

This is awesome Alex. Also captured, deftly, by mother. Respect. ''I said this is part time. I will never work as hard as you work. I refuse.'' (That was 9 years ago.)
Alex creates miracles armed with just some icing and rose petals. ''You'd think with cake there would be limits. But no. There are no limits.'' I want to say that this is followed by an evil laugh of megalomania, but Alex is too sweet to harbour thoughts of world domination through carrot cake.

Poor Roch. ''I started messing around on cupcakes. Then I got pulled into the business.'' Roch seems to be the one with the dry wit, quick comments and the one who has a wide view of every situation and the sense of satire in the show. Not content with sometimes rolling her eyes in a good-natured indicator of the draa-maa they're all engulfed in, Roch will actually tell it like it is. Just like Dr. Phil. But just in a cake place.

The top floor of the old Victorian building is where she's shackled kept locked up works. I'm talking about the fascinating character of Frances Belle, the adorably funny cake decorator. Frances is basically never ever let out, except maybe on National Arbor Day. Every other year. For the rest of the time she has to work like an underage South Vietnamese peasant girl in an Asian sweat shop and can only drop a basket from the top floor to get some water for when she's really thirsty.

Despite her working conditions (jokes of course) she creates these most amazing things that you see with your own eyes, but can't really believe truly exist. Frances Belle does amazing fine sugar work which started with her own wedding cake she did and since then she's just never looked back. This adorable character always comes through for the cake bakery where she's been working the past two years in-house. Like a true Rumpelstilzkin the magnificent Frances Belle always gets the cakes done despite too little time and too little warning for almost 40 years now.

Viewers who follow Charly's Cake Angels on Saturdays on SABC3 will see more, and more sides of their personalities being revealed of all of these pivotal characters in this new, locally-produced reality show in the coming weeks.


ALSO READ: Warning! Don't look if you can help it! The colour and the cake creations in Charly's Cake Angels on SABC3 might be too much too handle.
ALSO READ: REVIEW: Charly's Cake Angels on SABC3 is a light, fluffy, wonderfully decorated, with enough sweet stuff inside to make for quality television.
ALSO READ: Have your cake and see it too: The new Charly's Cake Angels on SABC3 is a new locally-produced reality show you'll want to watch.
ALSO READ: Charly's Cake Angels recap Ep.1: ''Oh dear. They're forever calling me downstairs. And they get so irate if I don't run.''

REVIEW. Charly's Cake Angels on SABC3 is light, fluffy, wonderfully decorated, with enough sweet stuff inside to make for quality television.

Just like any great cake maker will probably tell you, the secret to a fantastic creation is quality ingredients; skill and a steady hand decorating it all from the outside; enough sweet stuff on the inside (yet a consistency that's light and fluffy) and most of all, a labour of love.

It's exactly the same for fantastic television, and the TV cake that came out of the oven in the form of the new and delightful Charly's Cake Angels on Saturdays at 16:00 on SABC3 is light, fluffy, wonderfully decorated with enough sweet stuff on the inside to make for quality television.

ALSO READ: Have your cake and see it too. The new Charly's Cake Angels starting Saturday on SABC3 is a cake reality show you'll want to watch.

The beautiful Charly's Cake Angels produced by Cooked in Africa Films with executive producers Justin Bonello and Peter Gird, follows mom Jacqui and her cupcake daughters Alex, Dani and Roche behind the scenes in Charly's Bakery in Cape Town - South Africa's most famous cake bakery. Why this pink place hasn't been on television before/sooner is as mystery as the reality cameras perfectly captures the magical inside atmosphere, together with the frenetic hive of activity that a popular place such as Charly's Bakery clearly is.

The characters in Charly's Cake Angels are clearly somewhat uncomfortable with the cameras and self-aware that they're being filmed - which makes for a refreshing change from the ''career reality'' creatures like the Kasdashians who've been at it for so long that by now they tediously manufacture hollow sentiment on cue.

Just like the real sugar in the icing, the emotions in Charly's Cake Angels are however clearly very real - and there's quite a dollop in the first episode where Jacqui talks very emotionally about her friend Antoinette who died.

Perhaps the most striking thing of Charly's Cake Angels is the colour. Almost painfully so. The sheer amount of creative work, an abundance of cakes in vivid rainbow colours, magical creations created over many hours that will be destroyed and that you know will be completely consumed, is almost too much to take in. Then there's the delicious dynamic sure to be explored further in upcoming episodes between mom Jacqui and her daughters who all work in this crazy cake castle.

Any good reality show is built on a good dose of humour - either the viewer laughing at the subjects or with them, some dramatic irony, and some growth - some form of journey.

Charly's Cake Angels has it all - with dear Francis (peeking through the door) the wedding cake maker locked up upstairs having to churn out fantastic cake after cake, mumbling under her breath about the too much work but happily doing an awesome orange Garfield cake after she completed a massive BlackBerry phone cake. (Okay, Francis isn't really locked up, but she is kind of kept ... busy.)

The camera work from Cooked in Africa Films, and the editing, gives a clear sense that it's expertise at work in skillfully filming and portraying both food as well as people, once again mixing these two ingredients to create a very visually revealing story of very high quality.

Normal viewers won't notice the music but it's perfectly utilized as mood builder ranging from scenes of frenetic activity to more subdued yet emotional scenes. The original opening sequence of Charly's Cake Angels is also delightful (the creation of that also the subject of the first episode).

Charly's Cake Angels is the perfect addition to SABC3's entertainment lifestyle infused line-up. Why the broadcaster doesn't have this great show scheduled on a weeknight at 18:30 where American comedies now reside is like baking a wonderful cake but not putting it out there for people to see.

Any great cake maker will tell you that when you have a fantabulous creation, you want to (and have the right to) show off just a little. And Charly's Cake Angels is great. This well-produced and amazing show - and SABC3 - can show off all it wants to.

ALSO READ: Warning! Don't look if you can help it! The colour and cake creations in Charly's Cake Angels on SABC3 might be too much to handle.

ALSO READ: Hilarious: Who are they? Meet the awesome angels from Charly's Cake Angels, SABC3's new reality show.

ALSO READ: Have your cake and see it too: The new Charly's Cake Angels on SABC3 is a locally produced reality show you'll want to watch.

ALSO READ: Charly's Cake Angels recap Ep.1: ''Oh dear. They're forever calling me downstairs. And they get so irate if I don't run.''

HAVE YOUR CAKE AND SEE IT TOO. Charly's Cake Angels starting Saturday on SABC3 a new cake reality show you'll want to watch.

Charly's Cake Angels is a truly delightful (I've watched the episodes already) brand-new, local reality show starting on SABC3 tomorrow, Saturday 1 October at 16:00 which is one of the best local TV productions South African viewers will see in years.

In this 13 part first season (more stories, interviews and a review tomorrow on TV with Thinus) cameras venture behind-the-scenes of South Africa's most famous cake shop bakery, Charly's Bakery in Cape Town for a revealing, highly-entertaining and quite astounding look at what is happening in this beloved cakery (is that a word?).

This local TV production filmed over the last 10 months is wonderfully shot. The episodes, although they follow real events are delightfully themed around various dramas.

Charly's Cake Angels is carefully constructed to show the depth of the various cake characters - proof that South Africa really does have the TV production talent to make great reality television. Charly's Cake Angels has just the right sprinkling of drama, mixed with quality ingredients like fascinating characters, jaw-dropping challenges and some self-referential humour.

Charly's Cake Angels is from Justin Bonello's Cooked in Africa Films, executive produced by Peter Gird and follows (the initially reluctant) Jacqui Biess of Charly's Bakery in Cape Town's Fringe district and her daughters Alexandra, Daniella and Roche as the orders come in for amazing cake creations while a wide range of dramas play out - some with remarkable emotional depth.

Charly's Cake Angels needs a better timeslot from SABC3 who can with absolute confidence put this show in primetime where this local production will surely shine - just like some 5 tier chocolate cake that's beautiful to look at.

Charly's Cake Angels is pure icing on your TV cake and a great TV addition for South Africa viewers.


ALSO READ: Who are they? Meet the awesome angels from Charly's Cake Angels, SABC3's new local reality show.
ALSO READ: Warning! Don't look if you can help it! The colour and the cake creations in Charly's Cake Angels on SABC3 might be too much to handle.
ALSO READ: REVIEW: Charly's Cake Angels on SABC3 is light, fluffy and wonderfully decorated with enough sweet stuff inside to make for quality television.
ALSO READ: Charly's Cake Angels recap Ep.1: ''Oh dear. They're forever calling me downstairs. And they get so irate if I don't run.''