24 baking heaven APRIL WWW.FOODHEAVENMAG.COM
H
i Juliet! You’ve had such
a successful career in
baking – from running
your own cake boutique
and baking for celebrities, to
writing your own books and
presenting your own TV show –
where did it all begin?
It all stemmed from my love of savoury
food, throwing parties and gatherings
and getting friends and family together.
I used to manage pubs and bars and
work in kitchens. Once I had my first
child, I threw a huge party for him and
we invited about 150 people and, along
with catering for it, I decided to make a
cake too. I caught the bug for cake
decorating then as I thoroughly
enjoyed making it. This was about
22 years ago! I started making cakes for
fun. I had three kids under three so was
off work for a long while, and I started a
small cake making business from
home. I’d bake in the night when they
were all in bed. It all started from there.
In those days there was no YouTube etc,
and baking was still seen as really old
fashioned, so I taught myself from
novelty cake books and practiced until
I got better. I also used to go to the
Southend Sugarcraft guild at a
Salvation Army church and was taught
all the old-school cake decorating
techniques by some fabulous ladies. I
then adapted what I’d learned and
started to develop my own style which
had a much more modern approach.We loved watching ‘Beautiful
Baking’, what did you love most
about creating the series? (Please
tell us you’re bringing it back!)
Ooohhh I just LOVED making the
show! I love doing TV like This
Morning so to get the chance to do my
own show was really a dream come
true! I think what I most loved was
going around the country and meeting
some amazing food producers and
people who work in baking. I love
seeing how other people do things with
baking and cake decorating; there’s so
many ways to do things, so it’s really
fun to learn how other people are doing
it, and also find out about brilliant newfantastic to see so many people baking
recipes from the show and sharing
them on social media... so fingers
crossed they let me do another one!You come up with such creative
ideas, where do you get your
inspiration from?
All over the place really! I get loads of
inspo from nature, f lowers, foliage,
animals – all sorts really! I love to play
around with presentation, especially on
savoury food too, not just cakes. Quite
often I dream about a cake idea then
wake up and thankfully remember it
and give it a go. Also I get inspo from
art and interiors too, like gorgeous
wallpapers, fabric textures and prints.Are there any exciting new baking
ingredients you’ve recently added
to your baking cupboard?
I’ve got some gorgeous new extra darkQuickfire round★★★★ Sweet or savoury?
Savoury★ Cookery books or
cookery shows?
Cookery books★ Baking or decorating?
Decorating★ Simple bakes
or showstoppers?
Showstoppers!★ Cake or
chocolate?
Chocolateplaces or products. I also loved having
my friends visit in the kitchen and
generally have loads of fun AND bake
with a brilliant crew and team. I really
would love to bring out another series...
it went down really well and it was"Quite often I dream about a cake idea
t hen wake up and give it a go!"