On a golden Friday afternoon, we arrive at The Test Bakery, drawn in by the irresistible scent of caramel, butter, and just-baked bread. Entering through the back door into the kitchen, everyone's hard at work. It appears it's the busiest time for the team here, ahead of the bakery's weekend-only trading hours between 09:00–16:30. 

Muhammad Lavangee greets us with a warm smile, eager to share how the bakery came about. His wife, and the co-founder of The Test Bakery, Sadika Lavangee joins us but soon hurries off to resume her kitchen duties.

The Test Bakery, which is strictly halaal, opened its doors in September 2024, and operates exclusively on a Saturday and Sunday, says Lavangee. Between Tuesday and Friday, production starts up again to prep for the next weekend. The idea is that the bakery experiments with new creations during the week and aims to improve lesser bought goods from the weekend before. 

We stroll along the production line, where bread is being kneaded and croissants filled. There's flour everywhere. Industrial mixers are churning up magic, ingredients are being sifted, and we almost knock into someone carrying a cheesecake. It's warm in here. And not just because of the ovens being constantly opened. Everyone appears to be in good spirits. Jokes fly between the team and Lavangee, and they are met with easy laughter. It soon becomes evident why he says, "My number one success is the wonderful people that we work with."

Notable about the team: it consists of no less than 20 staff members. Five form part of the front-of-house team on weekends, and 15 are full-time staff members. During our visit, there are two pastry students from Capsicum Culinary Studio working as trainees, and more than 13 staff members managing day-to-day tasks. 

First impressions 

Before we even take our seats, our eyes are immediately drawn to the space surrounding us. It's divided into two parts: the one part is the bakery section, while the other is a seating area. The interior is warm and inviting with its colour palette of creamy shades, brown leather seats and touches of gold. The seating is impressive for a place that doesn't market itself as a café.

On the other side, the bakery is well-lit and set out so you can see everything you need. You definitely won't miss the bread selection, including honey and pecan sourdough, fruit and nut brioche, and our favourite, the Kitke, as it's well stored in crafty wooden shelves and golden carts. If you are thirsty, there's a well-equipped coffee station fitted with a proudly South African custom-made Henlo coffee machine in a fitting brown colour that offers up a good hot-drink selection, as well as freezos. Check out the savoury menu options too!

We learn that Sadika meticulously mapped out the layout of this space with a piece of chalk on their first visit to the space. 

From home kitchen to budding bakery

As we walk towards the quieter storefront , we hear Lavangee quickly sneak in an update on production progress before he sits down to share a bit more about himself and Sadika , their journey to establishing The Test Bakery, and the concept behind it. 

Lavangee's baking roots run deep: his family ran the much-loved Upper Crust bakery in Mayfair for decades. “We were the ‘bread people',” he says with a laugh. “There was always something being kneaded, proofed or baked in the house.” His working life brings years of experience from the commercial baking world, where speed, scale, and cost-efficiency are key, and high-volume production and ready-mix ingredients designed to serve a broad market at a low price point. While he acknowledges that this approach meets an important need, The Test Bakery operates on the opposite end of the spectrum: slow, intentional, quality-driven baking that mirrors what you'd make at home – only better.

Back in 2007, he first caught wind of sourdough bread. Without having any sense at that time of the cult following it would later garner, he shares that his journey in bread began then with a sourdough starter, and he says it's taken a good 10 years to perfect his recipe.

To feed his growing curiosity, Lavangee started going to baking expos and conventions with Sadika.