For as long as I can remember (and it has probably felt even longer to my friends and family who have had to endure me banging on about it for decades...), my dream has been to work with food, and more specifically to open my own café / tea room / bakery. Why, oh why, didn't I go into catering at college? Well, I generally like to blame rubbish careers advice, but in honesty there is probably a lot of self-doubt and fear of failure that I should probably employ a therapist to help me unpick!
I have always been a keen home cook and particularly love baking. My kids enjoyed elaborate birthday cakes as they were growing up - Barbie in a ballgown (always my favourite), Thunderbirds, Spiderman and an especially ambitious R2D2 to name but a few. I was regularly asked to make cakes for my nephews and nieces and the children of my friends- but this was when my kids were really young themselves, and their desire to 'help' with decoration and taste testing always made this either a very stressful, or a very late night endeavour after they had gone to bed!
So after years of feeling like I was missing my calling, but also having the reluctant conviction that the jump from accomplished home cook to food business owner was just too great, and that my lack of experience with the commercial side of catering was a risk too far, last autumn, I had the opportunity to quit my career in social care and take a post managing a seemingly idyllic café in a local park. This felt like a positive step towards my dream and an excellent training opportunity.
And so it was! I learned loads about food hygiene and environmental health compliance. About stock taking and rotation. About menu planning and promotion. About training and staffing. And I also learned how financially risky owning your own café can be! Specifically, how it can be affected by choice of location and what is immediately surrounding it, by existing clientele expectations and preferences, by the time of year and the weather on any given day...etc etc etc
That job was an enjoyable but also a valuable lesson, and it has been instrumental in me reassessing the dream to start out on my own as a home baker, rather than adding the rental of commercial premises into the initial mix. This feels like my acorn, which I am enjoying nurturing rather than taking on a full blown oak tree which I may have been unable to manage.
Let's watch it grow together!
Post script - I am renowned for my inability to keep any house plant alive, so let's hope my acorn analogy is not a jinx and that Wendy Bakes is more able to thrive than the wilting orchids on my window sill....