have always had an interest in food from an early age.
My biggest influences were my Mum and my Nana.

They cooked very good traditional British food. Mum always made a Sunday roast, usually beef and Yorkshire pudding or a leg of pork and apple sauce.

My favourite recipe Nana made was steak and kidney, nothing fancy mind you like herbs and spices just good old fashioned salt and pepper and lots of love! She cooked in a small brown earthenware pot in her old gas oven. To this day I still cannot exactly recreate her dish even though I have now inherited the earthenware pot. Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

he other big favourite of mine was the pudding – sometimes this was the best part. I have always had a

sweet tooth so cakes, desserts and puddings are my favourite and this is where I feel most at home in the kitchen. Baking is one of my most favourite occupations. I can often be found on a Sunday afternoon in the kitchen with the radio on making something sweet and usually chocolatey for the week ahead.

My son, James, who is 12 also has an interest in food and will often be found watching various cookery programmes, although I think his current favourite is ‘Come Dine with Me’ – not exactly a cookery programme but we both love watching it for a bit of fun!
James’s favourite meal has to be Spaghetti Bolognese, which apart from chopping the onions which he doesn’t like doing because of the smell, can make it himself from scratch unlike my grumpy other half who can’t even boil an egg! Yes I know there is a challenge there somewhere but I haven’t got round to that one yet – too many others to sort out first.

f you would like to learn how to cook home made cakes, bakes, biscuits and much more then join us on one of our newly created courses.

Back to Baking - Basics 1 – this is designed for the non-cake baker! If you have never made a cake then this is the course for you. You will be able to try a range of different cakes and bakes during the day. These can include classic Victoria sponge sandwich, scones, chocolate cake, lemon drizzle cake and more.

Back to Baking - Basics 2 – this is an additional course to the above but is designed you’re your waistline in mind. Although not fat free, the recipes are adapted to use lower fat lternatives where possible. These include mini chocolate cakes, carrot cake, pancakes, cheesecakes, etc

Biscuits, Muffins and Traybakes – learn to make homemade biscuits, delicious sweet and savoury muffins as well as chocolate brownies and much more.