I dare any dieter to linger outside a doorway from which sweet caramel and warm honey aromas are wafting.
At Ma Mère, an old-fashioned sweet shop, everything looks, smells and tastes like the real thing.
French for "my mother", Ma Mère plays on people's childhood memories.
"People associate sweets with family and holidays," said owner Lexi Bird. "When I was growing up, my mom made fudge in our kitchen and my step-mom taught me to make nougat, so the name seemed a good fit."
Together with three other confectioners, Bird crafts, cuts or wraps homemade goodies in pretty packaging.
She started her career art directing for an advertising agency in Durban. A failed relationship made her pack it all in and return to Cape Town, jobless.
Bird had studied at Silwood School of Cookery so, when a caterer friend called in a favour during 2010, she started making sweets in her mother's kitchen.
"They'd tell me a bride needed cake pops. So I'd say sure, and learnt how to make them," she says.
Ma Mère eventually moved to its current premises, in The Old Biscuit Mill.
The four main lines are French-style macaroons, fudge, brittle and nougat.
"Our products are expensive but you can taste the difference. We only use real butter and cream, and unfiltered, raw honey."
Occasional sidelines include rosemary and macadamia honeycomb, and caramel popcorn.
"We have an arrangement with The Creamery that we share a supply of free-range, organic eggs," said Bird. "We use only the whites for nougat and macaroons, whereas they use only yolks for their ice-cream."
Ma Mère fudge is moist and soft. There's the traditional variety, plus white chocolate, rooibos and honey, milk chocolate, Earl Grey and red velvet.
The nougat is more grown-up, dense with honey hints. Fillings include almond and dried figs, and an unusual olive oil, vanilla and almond version. The signature sea salt and macadamia nougat is delicate perfection.
"It's funny how this business has grown. I made seven small nougat slabs when we started. It seemed like a lot," said Bird. "Now we make 23 slabs in one go."
Salted macadamia nut brittle is delightful too, the salt offsetting its sweetness.
"Over three years I've learned: figure out what you do well, and do that as well as you can."
By all accounts it's working.
"A woman e-mailed the other day to say she had soaked in her bath with a glass of wine eating our white chocolate fudge."
- Ma Mère, The Old Biscuit Mill, 375 Albert Road, Woodstock. 082-445-2091, www.mamere.co.za
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