About me

So here I go. For the past two  months I've been keeping myself awake at night with thoughts and quibbles about what it is that I want to do with my life.

Ever since graduation, I've always dreamt of setting up my own cake shop, tucked away in a gorgeous little village, somewhere green, with rolling hills, and mountain tops looming in the distance.

For the past ten years, this dream has evaded me, but has always been at the back of my mind. No matter whether I was living and working in Melbourne, hiking through the Tiger Leaping Gorge in China, or starting my working life as a PA in Edinburgh, the quiet moments have always left me daydreaming of living my days happily baking cakes and sharing them with others.

Then a couple of months ago I stumbled across Virtuous Bread, the ethos of which is 'Eat well. Do good.' It was a feature in the lovely A Little Bird newsletter.  They'd gone on a half-day workshop learning how to bake bread - from scratch, by hand, in an oven. It was a lovely write up and got my attention.

My biggest passions in life stem from baking, cycling and hiking - finally I thought I could possibly have found a way to combine all three to make my dream come true.

I looked into the company which had been set up by Jane Mason, a former Management Consultant who had begun to question life when the recent recession hit. The principles of what she was seeking to achieve, mirrored those in my own heart, to bake and share this wonderful practice with others; building communities and getting people eating hearty, nutritious food. Dr Atkins followers listen up.

The world of bread has been dominated by the industry-celebrated Chorleywood Bread Process, which basically destroys any nutrients and eliminates all the benefits of eating bread. People have unsurprisingly been developing allergies and intolerances for the bread that has been pumped through supermarkets ever since the early 60s. And rightly so, many have turned away from it, as it leaves them bloated, feeling heavy and putting on weight as they need to eat more of it to get any real sustenance.

Real bread, is made up of only three (or a maximum of four) elements:

Flour, water, salt (and yeast).

Imagine the satisfaction of making a loaf from these simple ingredients; kneading it, watching it rise and taking shape, to pop in the oven and create a thing of beauty; with a taste and crumb to die for.

And so it was, I booked myself on the Sourdough Bread course with Virtuous Bread back in early October and began my journey.

This blog will chart my progress as I take the leap from full-time employee in London, to setting up as a baker, teacher and community maker in the hills. There'll clearly be ups and downs, tears of joy, and no doubt despair, but I'm determined.