AIN’T NO PARTY LIKE A BAKING PARTY
Bake Off star goes back to school for inspiration
For many chefs and bakers, inspiration for a new dish reveals itself after catching the scent of an unusual spice or tasting something new while travelling.
For Peter Sawkins, however, the spark for his new book was ignited a lot closer to home during a visit to a primary school.
While developing a fresh collection of recipes, the winner of The Great British Bake Off, who started baking seriously when he was just 12 years old, spent the afternoon with cake-mad Edinburgh school children – and left with an idea.
“I went down to my auntie’s primary school and I baked with her class,” explained Sawkins, 22, who became the youngest winner of the popular Channel 4 series in 2020.
“I brought down lots of kids’ baking books, I tried to see what they liked, what they didn’t like, asked about flavours and the things they love to do. They were amazing. They just gave me so much inspiration. I formed my book proposal heavily around what they told me.
“Obviously I looked into my own experience, thinking back to when I was super excited about baking as a kid but they were just invaluable in helping me frame the book and decide what I was going to write.”
The cookbook, aptly named Peter’s Baking Party, is filled with sweet and savoury recipes that he hopes with inspire more children to get into baking from a young age, just as he did. Although that’s not to say the chapters are filled with only the basics, as he quickly discovered that most youngsters loved to be challenged.
Sawkins said: “Their imaginations are incredible. They’re not just interested in super-simple, basic stuff. They want to stretch themselves, challenge themselves, and really want to get stuck into baking and doing it really well.
“Baking, for me, was always just something that was pure fun. On our half day from school, we would go and play tennis and then we’d bake a cake after – that was the classic thing that we did on a Friday afternoon with mum. I didn’t even realise that I was, in a sense, training for being on Bake Off later in life. Plus, I was developing a lot of skills, developing a lot of knowledge, and developing how I could explore my own creativity, all without even realising it. That’s part of the reason why I wanted to put this book together. The goal is to inspire and excite kids to get in the kitchen because at the same time as doing this fun hobby, you develop so many skills, creativity, and even learn resilience when things don’t go wrong. There’s numeracy and literacy skills and independent kitchen skills. Yes, baking can be just fun and silly but it can also teach us so much. That was my experience when I look back as a kid, and now, hopefully, I’ll be able to share that with some new people.”
With the book dedicated jointly to his teacher auntie Rachel and mum Morag, Sawkins has of course shared some family favourite recipes. Found in the No Bake section – which sits alongside recipes for everything from afternoon tea and puddings to biscuits and cakes – his mum’s malteser squares, he said, taste of nostalgia.
“Every time I eat them, it just
brings me back to being a kid,” explained Sawkins, who is in the final year of a degree in accounting and finance at Edinburgh University.
“It’s a classic traybake that mum would do for a church coffee morning or if it was our birthday at school and we could bring in a cake for the class. Me and my brother would always try to scran the whole tray before she could take them away. I have very fond memories of that recipe.”
Sawkins’ earnest passion for baking made him a fans’ favourite during the 11th series of Bake Off, which was filmed in a “self-contained biosphere” due to Covid-19 restrictions. One of the most popular years in the show’s history to date, 7.9 million people tuned in to watch the first episode alone. Contestants had to contend with becoming overnight celebrities, their every whisk and knead pored over on social media.
It was, Sawkins admitted, something of a shock not just to win but also to return to real life and 250,000 Instagram followers – not least because only a handful of people knew he had made it on to the show.
He said: “No one’s ever prepared for it, you know? Only six or seven people knew that I was on the show and even then two of my flatmates that I was living with didn’t know. One morning my face is on BBC News as they walked in to have breakfast.
“That happened with every single friend – and then it started happening with people that I had never met. Online, people start following you because they’re really interested in the show and want to see what you’re doing but it’s something completely foreign. I don’t think anyone could necessarily be prepared for it. Social media has been one of the things that, for me, has been bit of a challenge since being on the show.
“I’m not naturally…i don’t necessarily always love what social media is all about. I’m being very sort of blunt and honest saying that when maybe I shouldn’t be.
“I’m incredibly lucky to have that platform, but a lot of the time, I find it quite stressful knowing that there’s all these people following along with what you do.”
However, since his debut book, Peter Bakes, was published a year ago, he has tried to focus on the positive side of social media, like being able to connect with fans who send him pictures of cakes, cookies, pies and buns all made with his recipes.
He said: “When people share bakes from the book that puts a genuine smile on my face. To know that people are connecting with it, spending a really fun afternoon, and then sharing bakes with their loved ones because of the work that I’ve put together, that’s super special. So, yeah, to have social media there and be able to see that from real people is a big blessing.”
Peter’s Baking Party: Fun And Tasty Recipes For Future Baking Stars, is published on Thursday