My Tour of London Bakeries

David Hall and me at London Bread and Cake Company

I have just spent two great days in London finding out about the bakery industry.  It was organised by David Hall, who invited me to London as I won the Young Baker Category (12-17years) at the World Bread Awards. The first day was spent at the London Bread and Cake Company with David Hall.  At the beginning we chatted about my aspirations for the future.  He gave me some ideas of where I could do training to be a baker.  He gave me some books and leaflets to look at and ideas of organisations to join.  I have recently joined the Craft Bakers Association but am now going to join the Real Bread Campaign.

David showed me around his amazing bakery and showed me all the different machines that make his tasty bread.  Some of the products we saw included brioche, bloomers, bread rolls, bagels, Sicilian lemon cake, Russian cake, Eccles cakes and croissants.  David explained the difference between puff pastry and Danish pastry.  David explained how recipes were adapted to suit the needs of various customers.  I had a go at slashing a bloomer and I learnt why these cuts are important.

We saw convection ovens with steam especially for crispy bloomers and saw convection ovens for cakes.  I helped roll some chia bread and slashed the bloomers. I helped with some Sicilian lemon cake that would be served as to first class passengers on an aeroplane.

  

We enjoyed a freshly baked croissant with some of my Ave Maria Sensational Seville Marmalade. This got the thumbs up from David! I had a fantastic day and was looking forward to the next day

 

 

For my second day in London I was pleased to be invited to Dunn's bakery in Crouch End.  This bakery was on the programme Victorian Bakers which was a programme I watched recently and really liked.  

When you walk in the shop you are amazed at the range of delicious cake and bread that is available for sale.   We were shown around by Lewis Freeman who was is a sixth generation baker. We saw buns, seeded loaves, frangipane tarts, cakes, chocolate Easter bunnies, eclairs and mincemeat being made. 
 
We were able to see the equipment used on Victorian bakers including a really old food mixer that is still used today.  Lewis said this takes longer than modern machines but is more gentle, mimicking the action of the hands. 

 
We also saw the oven they used in the programme.  To create steam in this oven, they spray the oven with water to create steam like I do at home. 

 


This oven will be replaced soon by a brand new oven.  We saw a Hobart mixer and another machine which presses dough flat then rolls it up - we had also seen this same type of machine at the London Bread and Cake Company.  As well as these machines we also saw new mixers. Despite the technology it was great to see a lot of processes done by hand. 

It was a very friendly place and we chatted to several of the staff as we went around.
When we had finished, we bought cakes and bread to share with our family who loved them.  

 

 

We called into Budgens when we had finished in the bakery and it was good to see that they were supporting Dunn's bakery by stocking lots of their bread.

I really enjoyed my two days in London.  It has given me knowledge of all the different processes that go on in a bakery and all the different equipment involved.  It was good to be able to compare the things I do with my baking at home with what happens in a bakery business.  I have had lots of ideas of things I would like to do in the future.  Everyone I met was very kind.  I am especially grateful to David Hall for arranging this and to Lewis Freeman who looked after me at Dunn's.

Christopher Freeman, me and Lewis Freeman receiving some of my marmalade for his bread!