The Doorstep Baker is an idea that evolved from my experiences over the years. It’s a home baking food delivery service within my local area of Bewdley, Kidderminster and Stourport. I’m a supporter of The Real Bread campaign and permitted to display the real bread loaf mark on my sourdoughs. These are made with organic flour, water, salt and my sourdough starters.
Flavoured sourdoughs I make, are still real bread and do not have additional raising agents or preservatives. Read the ingredients list on a factory loaf and you’ll find a few surprise ingredients. Bread is one of the oldest food offerings, yet modern bread is completely different to what our human bodies are accustomed to. Real bread gives you the taste and digestive experience of a loaf that can be beneficial to our nutrition. Yeasted loaves come under the real bread definition, as long as they don’t contain ingredients that don’t belong in real bread. Read more on The Real Bread Campaign website.
I’m a passionate cook and baker with at least 25 years home experience and 6 years professional experience. I hold the level 2 Food Hygiene and Safety qualification and I am insured as a home baker. If you want to know more about me and what The Doorstep Baker has evolved from, read on. Further down the page tells you more about the suppliers I use and my commitment to reduce packaging.
10 plus years ago, my passion for baking and cooking presented me with a choice. At the time I was working as a family support practitioner, managing a caseload and delivering parenting courses.
I started to work my one day off, at a local cafe. It was always a dream of mine and if I’m honest it was helping me to de stress from my work role. Of course I was hooked and just loved bringing my home learned foodie skills to life. After being there a couple of months I was asked to join the team more permanently. I weighed up what I should do and what I really wanted to do. It was a weighty decision to make because I had spent a lot of time and effort completing my Open University degree in order to become a family support practitioner. Now the decision seems so simple! I wasn’t happy or entirely comfortable in my role.
So the choice was made after supportive conversations with family and friends. I left my career and I followed my dream of cooking for others.
I became a cook and baker and worked at the cafe making quiches, soups, fresh sandwich fillings, afternoon teas, cakes, scones and all that comes with it.
It was a brave leap for me, but the happiness it brought to me every day made me realise I was on a path that was my dream. And the wonderful team I worked with were, and still are, fabulous supporters. Being offered that opportunity literally changed my life.
Since then I have worked as a baker in another local coffee shop and also returned to my career in support work as a coordinator for a local charity. I have also volunteered as an assistant to the cooking facilitator at a local day facility for vulnerable adults.
I’d been sharing my hobby baking experiences on Instagram for two years too. This was about nut free bakes I create, inspired by my son’s severe allergy. But the common theme with all the day jobs I’ve held has been my want to return home and bake for others.
Enhancing my skills
To enhance my skills I have learned more from: a sweet breads and viennoiserie baking course at Loaf in Stirchley; cake courses at Blue Door Bakery in Redditch and a fun cooking course at Simpsons Restaurant in Edgbaston. Check out their websites, if you get the chance, they’re great inspirations.
All of these experiences and more helped me develop my idea to run my own small bakery from home. Since February 2020 I’ve been designing my weekly baking / food menu and delivering within the local area. To make this achievable and minimise food waste I operate the orders as 1 month and 3 month subscriptions, with different options to choose from. As a one woman small business my time is precious. I do all the making and baking along with all the management, administration and deliveries. This is why I select certain produce to make on certain days and also why I have limited numbers of subscriptions. We cannot do everything we want to at once, but we can focus on doing smaller things really well.
I also offer seasonal specials for subscribers and non subscribers – look out for these on my Website Homepage, Facebook and Instagram page. Be quick to snap them up!
Suppliers and packaging
I use local produce suppliers to make use of fresh seasonal vegetables and fruit, where possible. Often this is mainly from Bewdley Farm Shop. I use organic flour for all my sourdough from Shipton Mill that is based in Gloucester. Shipton Mill has a well earned reputation amongst professional and artisan bakers. I also use Pimhill Farm for wholemeal, when I can. Again they are local, being based in Shrewsbury and are long established millers of organic flour and oats. Free range eggs are also a must to have in the Doorstep Baker sweet treats. These are a great basis, ethically and taste wise, for any cake or cookie that is going to be great!
Subscribers have helped me to reduce packaging waste too. The majority of subscribers opt for kilner type jar soup deliveries. For sweet treats, some subscribers have purchased their own reusable boxes. Let me know if you’d like to join in and I’ll let you know the box dimensions that will be suitable.
When I use bags, boxes and pots they are all either compostable, recyclable and have already been recycled in some cases. Even down to the bread bags I deliver your sourdough in, or little side pots for soup additions. If you’d like to keep your sourdough fresh in a reusable bag, ask me about buying an organic cotton ‘The Doorstep Baker sourdough bag’. It keeps your sourdough fresh without the need of single-use food wraps.
What people say about The Doorstep Baker
Well the sweet treats went down a storm. Apparently I’m the best Grandpa ever! Thanks again.
A ‘seasonal special’ customer text
Thanks for the subscription reminder. By the way, the soup was amazing!
A Kidderminster subscriber text
I don’t know how I would cope without my weekly sourdough delivery.
3 month subscriber email
The Doorstep Baker 