Old-fashioned housekeeping habits aren't just greener and cheaper - they're a goldmine,too, as these very modern women have discovered.
Words by Kim Jones

Emma Goss-Custard, 35, runs Honeybuns bakery in Dorset.

"There's nothing quite as comforting as the aroma of freshly baked cakes filling a home, just as they did when I was a little girl.

Whenever my Mum reached for the tattered old scrapbook kept next to the radio in the kitechen, my spirits would lift, as I knew it was going to be a baking day. The scrapbook was filled recipe cuttings handed down from my grandmother, Florence. She was rather an avant-garde lady for her era and had spent a lot of time in Italy in her twenties with a boyfriend she had met out there. Eventually she returned home, armed with unusual and exotic cake recipes.

I can remember visiting her seaside bed and breakfast years later, and watching in wonder as she donned a clean pinny and mixed up her delicious combinations of polenta, ground hazlenuts, almonds and lemon oil.
Mum continued the tradition, tweaked the recipes and taught me how to bake Gran's cakes, then passed the book - and her old mixer - on to me.
Though I enjoyed pottering in the kitchen and experimenting with the recipes in my spare time, I never dreamed I would eventually make my living out of Grandma's cakes. After university I did teacher training, but very soon I realised that instilling discipline wasn't one of my strong points.

My course tutor, who'd tasted some of my home-made cakes, suggested that my heart lay elsewhere. By remarkable good luck, her husband ran a patisserie, and offered me a job.

That gave me a taste for working with food, and I realised there was a gap in the market for freshly baked home made cakes for delivery in offices in the area. So out came Grandma's recipe book, and I would spend hours mixing, tasting and perfecting delicious cookies, flapjacks and cakes, using only natural ingredients and keeping Gran's recipes authentic. I bought a second hand bike with a basket and cycled the streets delivering my wares.
I called my delivery round "Honeybuns" - and there was nothing like seeing the instant satisfaction on my customers' faces as they bit into one of my cakes. I think the home-baked natural taste stuck a nostalgic note with them.

Business was brisk, but i was barely covering costs. In a bold moment, I contacted John Lewis- and was invited to their head offices for bosses to sample my wares. I arrived armed with a selection of cakes in my gran's wicker basket - and they were a hit. Suddenly, I had quite a large contract - to supply their cafes - on my hands.

I'd bake through the night and the house would be filled with cakes, slices and flapjack s- on bookshelves, tables and any spare surface in sight. We knew we had to expand, but my husband Matt and I wanted somewhere beautiful to bake and live in, not just some nameless factory on an industrial estate.

We moved to the gorgeous Dorset countryside and found Naish Farm - a cottage with outbuildings, which we have turned into a bakery. We have a few acres for rescue animals - dogs, donkeys and ponies - which seem to amass. And we have employed a smalll, dedicated team of local people around us.

Although business has grown - and our award winning cakes are now stocked in cafes, farm shops and supermarkets all over the country - we always stay true to our home baking principles.

We use as much produce from local artisan producers as possible. The creamy butter I use in my recipes is churned locally, and i collect eggs from the free range hens wandering around a farm two miles away, while our honey is supplied by a retired GP down the road.

I do feel lucky living and working as i do. I get to play with my scrumptious ingredients, create new recipes, taste-test new bakes and visit local suppliers on a daily basis. And I like to think my cakes bring a little happiness to everyone who tries them.

In my spare time I run around the country lanes surrounding where we live. Not for the love of it - just so I can eat more cakes!"