With Kids, April / May 2005

BAKING, WITH LOVE

Award-winning Dorset baker Emma Goss-Custard remembers her first cake: "It was horrendous! I was about seven, it was a birthday cake for my mum, and when I got it out of the tin it was completely uncooked in the middle. I stuffed the soggy bit with raisins and anything I could find - my mother laughed and laughed!" As founder of the Honeybuns bakery, selling no-compromise cakes to cafes and restaurants, Emma credits her business inspiration to her mother's skills: "She was a very good Aga cook - never really followed a recipe and baked all through the day. We always had a full biscuit tin."

Emma started out cycling her homemade shortbread around delis and sandwich shops, but the business now employs 20 people working out of the Naish Farm Bakery, overlooking a meadow with frolicking ponies and donkeys. The flapjacks, cakes and slices are sold in cafes such as the Pear Tree in nearby Sherborne, garden centres around Dorset, and as far afield as Harvery Nichols in London. But there's no production line. "Every baker makes their own batch from beginning to end," says Emma confidently. "There's no need for us to get any bigger. We've pledged never to supply the multiples - it would kill us."

Developing family recipes using ground nuts and polenta rather than flour to acheive moist richness, the Honeybuns range is now completely gluten- and wheat-free - a real boon to coeliacs.

To experience the total Honeybuns philosophy, make a note on your calendar for the annual Bee Hop open day on 21 May. It's a proper, old-fashioned village fete at the farm, with donkey rides, kids' races, games run by the local Scouts, plus fun for grown-ups including jazz bands, real ale, and "lots of stalls where you can spend a serious amount of money!" (including antiques and a farmers' market). "Everyone welcome, the more the merrier," says Emma. All profits go to the local church roof fund.

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