Cakes now take star role for ex-theatre boss
A woman has launched a floating bakery from her canal barge in Bath after losing her job as a theatre director in the pandemic.
Firdaws Fourcroy, known as Fifi, 28, lives on a canal boat with her actor husband Alasdair, and 16-month-old daughter Vivienne.
French-born Fifi used to work as a theatre director in London and teach theatre at the City Academy before the pandemic struck and closed the theatres.
She has now turned her home on a canal boat on the Kennet and Avon canal into the ‘Floating Bakery,’ providing delicious plantbased cakes.
Fifi said: “I’ve been open for two weekends so far and have sold out all the cakes both days which is just amazing. I used to work in theatre, it has been a really bad year to be working in theatre.”
She added: “I moved back to the Bath and Bradford-on-avon area in November 2020 but have lived on the canal boat for three years.
“I have always loved baking. It was something I used to do with my mother and it was a way of feeling close to her during difficult times.
“As the coronavirus pandemic struck I thought well I have always wanted to share my cakes and that is what I should do. I really do just love cake.
“I have worked as a baker before briefly, but I always wanted to do more with it.
“There are a lot of challenges to trying to make cakes in a boat, namely our oven didn’t work so we used a camping oven for ages. We didn’t have enough money to buy a new one but after some help we have.”
With basic items such as flour at a premium during the first wave of the pandemic last summer, Fifi was forced to resort to radical measures to source ingredients for her goods.
She added: “It used to take six hours to bake one cake, but it is a lot better now.
“I started off sending cakes to friends and practising how I could decorate them.
“Yet back in the summer when I was figuring out how it could work there was a flour shortage - I used to have to cycle for miles to try and find some flour.
“Many hours were spent hunting for flour and then my fridge went so I decided to go plant-based which went amazingly well.
“I’ve basically had a whole year of experimenting and have now got my licence to do this.
“I’ve been getting lots of orders from passers-by on the canal and also I can send cakes by post.”
Fifi says she has enjoyed interacting with her new customers and that making connections with the local people was “amazing”.
She said: “When they stop by we have a proper chat I feel like we’re giving more than a cake, we’re building connections and it is all so precious at the moment.”
The baker said the most popular order was the Berry Mess cake which has a vanilla sponge, strawberry jam and a fluffy cream filling.
Fifi added that she can make more specialised orders for any customers.
You can find out where she will be mooring along the canal via her Facebook and Instagram pages.