A school in northern England is teaching online pastry-makers how to create a perfect cake for Christmas.
The school, called Bakelite, uses a system that combines computer graphics and hand-to-hand cooking techniques to help teach people how to produce and sell their own cakes.
The aim is to give young people the skills they need to take over the industry, says the school’s founder, Joanna Baker.
Baker is a former pastry chef at a pastry school and an author of the online course, which has been taught to over 100 people and is being taught by more than 600 online pastry schools across the country.
Bakelite’s online course is designed for beginners who are just starting out, and the organisation has also offered classes to students at universities.
“It’s a huge opportunity for young people to start their careers,” says Baker, whose son started the course last year.
“They’re all really young, they’re all looking to take their first steps and learn how to do things and get their foot on the pedal of technology.”
She says the lessons are aimed at helping young people, but she also hopes to help them to start to build their own business.
“We’re trying to give them the knowledge that they need and the tools they need,” she says.
“There’s a lot of money at stake and the whole idea is to let people know there’s lots of opportunities out there.”
Baker says the course aims to help the business to become sustainable.
“The people that are doing this are really passionate about it and I think they’re also doing it to give people an education that they don’t have before,” she explains.
“Because they’re learning how to cook a cake they want to make, and then we’re going to take that and turn it into a product and sell it to the public.”
Bakers first idea was to create the first online pastry class in the UK, but then she had a change of heart and decided to try it out in a more formal setting.
“I thought, well I’m going to go back to the drawing board,” she said.
“And I thought, I can’t do that in my classroom.
I can do that on the internet, but I have to go to a restaurant and serve them my cakes.”
Bake Lite was founded in 2009, and Baker says she is now training more than 200 people.
She says she has a lot to learn about how to turn the concept into a business, and she also wants to share the success of the project with her students.
“You’ve got to have a really good network and you’ve got a lot going on at once and a lot less time,” she explained.
“But we’ve all been very lucky.
We’re all doing great things and we’re all getting our own way, and it’s very inspiring.”
Baking classes are also a way to provide people with support and support is also what Baker hopes to do in the future.
“What I want to do with my career is help people to be able to do their own thing and I want it to be a really positive thing for young adults,” she concluded.
“We’re all going to have our own careers and I just want to be part of that.”
That’s what I hope to do as a business.
