Guest Chef

Gwyneth Horscroft’s

Gwyneth Horscroft’s ginger coconut flapjacks

When Gwyneth Horscroft finally launched her own travel business in 2019 after nearly 15 years in the industry, the Ontario native had no idea that the pandemic was about to wreak havoc on her new livelihood. As she watched her bookings get cancelled, she knew she had two choices: unemployment or diversification. The keen cyclist chose the latter. This past summer, Horscroft finally embraced her passion for baking and whipped up a business model with bike delivery as a part of the service.

When she found herself with time on her hands during lockdown, Horscroft kept busy by testing her baking skills with some new recipes, such as French macarons. “I was surprised at how well they turned out,” she says, “so I started thinking about making this into a business. I looked at the logistics. As I didn’t have a storefront or a car, cycling seemed like a good delivery option.” Currently Horscroft is based in Cambridge, U.K., a city that seems to have more bicycles than households. Without the harsh reality of Canadian winters, the location allows for year-round cycling, which made her business venture a little easier.

Bicycles Bakes offers a weekly menu of sweet and savoury treats, including seasonally flavoured macarons, brownies and cakes. Her job has allowed her to capitalize on the bicycle-friendly infrastructures of Cambridge to get in shape during the lockdown. She now spends her mornings baking at home, and her afternoons whizzing all over town on her Trek, sometimes racking up as much as 50 km per day and delivering freshly baked goods to customers stuck at home and in need of a tasty afternoon tea.

Horscroft’s recipe is a typical English flapjack. Tuck it away in your jersey pocket on your next ride, ready for when you need an energy boost.

Serves 12 Ingredients

⅔ cup butter

⅓ cup brown sugar

¼ cup golden syrup or corn syrup

Pinch of salt

2 tsp ground ginger

3 tbsp finely chopped stem ginger in syrup ½ cup rolled oats

2 ½ cups jumbo oats

⅓ cup mixture of seeds

½ cup coconut

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 300 F.

2. Grease a 20-cm square cake pan.

3. In a large pan, melt the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup or corn syrup, salt and ground ginger.

4. Remove from the heat and stir in stem ginger, oats, seeds and coconut.

5. Press mixture into the pan with a spatula or the back of a spoon.

6. Bake for 27–30 minutes.

7. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before cutting.

“She’s based in a city that seems to have more bicycles than households.”