I think some of my happiest memories have always started in the kitchen.
Not fancy kitchens.
Not perfect kitchens.
Just kitchens with flour, lighter, the smell of something baking, and the excitement of knowing something homemade was about to be shared.
My love of baking started when I was little, baking alongside my mum.
I remember the cakes we made for every home game for the football team, homemade with love, ready to be sold in the tea room at the football ground.
There were Victoria sponges, chocolate cakes, coffee cakes and all the classics that made people smile
They weren't just cakes.
They were part of the community
They were made to bring people together
I remember the feeling of creating something with my mum and knowing that something we had made would be enjoyed by someone else.
That feeling has stayed with me
And there was my Nan.
Every family has those recipes that are famous, the ones everyone still talks about. Nan's famous cut and come again, although you were not allowed to come again. I small slice only if you arrived before tea at 11am and 3pm, otherwise nothing.
Or her melting moments, Chinese chews, the list goes on
Recipes that weren't written in fancy books, but lived in memories, passed through generations, made by watching, learning and doing.
The kind of recipe that takes you back like a warm hug, to that time and moment …..home.
As my own journey has changed, so has my baking, but my longing for those recipes has remained.
Learning to bake first diary free then vegan has been about keeping those memories alive but in a new way .
Because I don't want those recipes to be lost.
To take the cakes my mum and Nan made, the flavours i grew up with and create versions i can enjoy with my family and to share
The ingredients may change a little, but the memories do not.
A vegan Victoria sponge can still carry the same excitement
A chocolate cake can still be the centre of a celebration
A biscuit can still bring everyone running into the kitchen asking if they can try one.
That's the magic of food
It connects generations
Its carries stories
It reminds us where we can from
Now my own kitchen is becoming part of that story
There are new memories being created here
Little hands helping
Taste testing
Messy worktops
Flour everywhere
The occasional baking disaster that becomes a funny story
And hopefully recipes that my children will one day look back on and remember with the same warmth I feel when I think of baking with my mum and Nan.
Because baking has never just been about cakes
It's about love
It's about sharing
It's about taking something special from one generation and passing it on to the next
And now i get to add my own chapter
Full of old favourites, new creations and plenty of cake.
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