KENYA: The 2016 Edition of the Cake Art Affair Brings You'Third Hand Music', 'Yellow Light Machine', The Best Cakes and Ice Cream This Side of Africa

It’s finally the weekend and it’s tough to follow up from the Valentines weekend and the epic Sauti Sol album launch that was, but what better way to follow up such an amazing concert than with another day full of performances, spoken word and culinary arts.

Yes, the 2016 edition of the Cake Art Affair is going down this weekend and as always what you can expect is to see the best of the best of spoken word poets, the likes of ‘Gcho Pevu’, ‘Flow Flani’ and ‘Ulimi Tamu’.

There will also be amazing band performances from ‘Third Hand Music’, ‘Lots of Love the Band’, 'Gravitti; and the ‘Yellow Light Machine’. Trust me there’s no better place to go listen to the next Sauti Sol before your friends than at the Cake Art Affair.

And of course while you listen and watch all these amazing performances, you can get to try all the sweetest cakes from around town.

What more reason do you have to attend this year’s Cake Art Affair?

We recently got a chance to converse with Simon Maina one of the founders of Cake Art to find out what inspired them to start the event and what more to expect this year. Here’s how the interview went;

What is Cake Art Affair?

Cake Art Affair is an Arts Event that blends the Art of Baking with Live Performances & Visual Arts.

What Inspired you to start the event? What was your Goal? Do you think you've achieved it?

Its inception was inspired by the familiness that is found in the Cake Art Fans, from the days it was just a hangout on a weekend at Arboretum. Its Goal is basically to be that major stepping stone for young talented and promising artists & bakers. We wouldn’t claim to have achieved that yet, but we are on the right track, for instance one of our resident bakers 'Kammy's Confectionery' is the current Cake supplier for Haltons Pharmacy with over 40 branches countrywide. Yet she was just baking for her family and friends when she joined us. Le Band, an amazing boy band that played at the previous Cake Art Affair, open for Sauti Sol at their Album Launch, that gives hope and motivation to keep doing what we do.

How was the reception when you started compared to now?

Since we started, as an acoustic hangout the reception was and is still positive, and that is something we bunk on. Hence giving our people ultimate artistic entertainment and quality Cake remains our priority.

What is the difference between Cake Art Affair today and when you started the event?

When we started we only did music, poetry & baking... Now we've incorporated visual arts in an attempt to create an artistic cocktail.

What was the reason behind mixing culinary arts and performance arts?

The reason we brought baking and live performance together is because we realized that Baking is an Art, which actually marries together with good music & poetry.

Which measures do you take to ensure that fans keep attending Cake Art Affair every year?

We treat our event as a business with its own clientele... Hence the best way we ensure people always come edition after edition is by giving maximum customer satisfaction. We are aware it’s difficult to please everyone but we always do our best. Also making sure there’s new and exciting things to look forward to for every edition is another way of ensuring attendance

What is your opinion of the culinary industry in Kenya? What needs to change?

Umh, we would say that the baking industry is quite expansive, a huge number of Kenyans are sweet tooths. The Baking industry is perhaps just 30% tapped, with only few leading Bakery houses and other bakers choosing to do it on small scale. We'd recommend and encourage bakers, especially young ones, to take advantage and invest their skills and time in building proper Bakery Brands that are founded on Quality and Deliverance.

Do you think Kenyans appreciate culinary art as much as people in the West do? Why?

Kenyans are gradually learning and appreciating more Kenyan made products unlike years back.

In the end, we hope to keep growing the Cake Art Affair family into an influential movement. A movement that appreciates, celebrates and buys Kenyan Music and Art. All these while we keep enjoying more Cake from our Bakers.

Cake Art Affair will be happening at the Arboretam, Saturday, 20th February.