Linda Hopkins Coaching

I’ve enjoyed baking since childhood. One of my earliest memories is sitting at my own special table in our kitchen while my mum was baking. It was actually a metal tray with fold down legs, so that gives some indication of how young (and small) I was! I would have some ingredients to be mixing or playing with while she was getting on with the main thing, but I’m fairly sure what I produced was edible too!

I held the view that my grandmother was always baking because every time I went to visit her on my own as a young child (which would be on a Saturday morning) she was baking – delicious rice crispy marshmallow cakes I remember very clearly, but others too – and I got to lick the bowl clean. It was only in recent years that my mother told me that she only used to bake on a Saturday morning so that burst the image I had of her, but regardless – I got to appreciate home baking and to learn to love baking myself.

I’m so glad to have passed a love of baking on to my children, and in recent years daughter Jess has turned that love into a profession, and kind of through default I’ve been involved too. It has been a huge learning curve as Little Bee Bakes has taken shape and I’m sure will continue to be, but it is also very satisfying – the baking itself and knowing that other people are enjoying the cakes we are sending out.

Before lockdown we had a trial run at hosting a workshop in our new kitchen space. A few friends joined me in taking part, with Jess providing instruction on baking up her classic brownies, followed by cookie dough, each of us adding our own choice of additional ingredients. It was great fun, and something we hope to be able to do more of once we can meet up with others again. We’re creating a space for creativity, for learning something new, for being with others and most importantly baking and enjoying the end result!