EAT THE CAKE

WORDS & INTERVIEW

BETH BENNETT

After rocketing to the final of The Great British Bake Off last year, Sandro Farmhouse has established himself as one of the most exciting and entertaining bakers of our time. Now, he’s using his skills and his love for others to provide educational support with his new initiative Baking On The Spectrum.

EJ So, you were baking for quite a while before you ended up on The Great British Bake Off last year, weren’t you? Can you tell us a bit about your journey and how you got here today?

SF Yeah, so baking started at home with me. We moved from Angola when I was young and so we were living in London. I was baking with my mum when I was a little boy, like most kids do, definitely more interested in licking the spoon. Grew up, kinda forgot about it really. Then when I was a young man, my dad died and I found baking again after that. I found the therapeutic qualities of baking then and couldn’t stop. It was something that grew naturally after that. I didn’t force it really. Then, yeah, got onto Bake Off. After that, I was asked to bake for a lot of celebrities like Lorraine Kelly and Stormzy.

EJ You spoke just now about how you found baking therapeutic and this is something you’ve spoken about at length before - why do you think that is? Is it the repetition of it?

SF Definitely. You reach a point where you eventually get lost in it. You’re focused on trying to get this one thing done, measure everything perfectly, and get to the finished product. You forget the world around you when you’re, for example, kneading bread and you’re immersed in the sensory aspect of it all. It’s just a calming experience for me.

EJ Do you also think it’s about having that tangible finished product too?

SF Of course, yeah. When you’re finished, there’s a special moment when you’ve made something and you get to share it with friends and family. I don’t bake to be complimented, I bake to feel good in myself, but it is nice to get that praise too.

EJ Do you find that since this has become a full-time job for you that you’re always getting harangued by your friends and family to bring something to a meal or celebration?

SF I don’t really. I end up bringing a lot more to them on a normal day because I always have leftovers but because it’s my job, they don’t expect me to just whip something up for a birthday.

EJ Just bring over a Colin the Caterpillar cake, yeah?

SF Yeah, yeah. He’s never let me down. No one’s ever disappointed with a Colin.

EJ So with your success on Bake Off and now working as a full-time baker, do you find that engaging with something that you find therapeutic as a career has helped guide you towards further self-care outside of work?

SF Oh, for sure. I used to do it a lot for vanity reasons but now I’ve actually been going to people and researching, you know, what’s best for my skin? What workouts are going to improve how I feel here? I’ve also found that I’m using it for alone time now, to catch up with myself. I spend, like, thirty minutes doing self-care in the morning and evening and that means every day I’ll have an hour to myself to just…re-align.

EJ Phone off, music playing?

SF Yeah, absolutely. The world is so loud, you know? I just want to take some time to sit down, put cream on my face for a half an hour, and be at peace.

EJ So to get into Baking On The Spectrum, which is an initiative that came out of what you started during lockdown, isn’t it? It’s about providing that support network and bringing people together through baking?

SF Yeah, yeah. I’ve always been in very community orientated jobs whether I’m working as a support worker, a nanny, or just helping the community. I’ve been working in this realm for over a decade ago and I knew it was always something that I was going to be doing forever, like a calling or something. But, yeah, during lockdown a light bulb went off in me and I realised that I could help people who, like myself, were really anxious about the pandemic. So I started doing weekly bakes with me over Zoom and Instagram Live and, yeah, on one of them I was speaking to a girl with autism and that made me realise that there’s this community that already struggles in school and processing their feelings towards things and right now they’re going through this pandemic without the support network that they’re probably used to. And I wanted to give this community a support network, a safe place, and an educational place. So that’s how Baking On The Spectrum started.

The kids themselves and their families get so much out of it. It’s not just about feeling good. Children are getting to improve their fine motor skills, improve the way that they engage with their parents and carers. They’re able to learn and explore foods. The parents and carers are also seeing these kids achieving something so it’s giving them hope too, it’s giving them the encouragement that, despite what they may have been told, their child can learn skills and have a more independent life. It shows the kids too that with the right adaptations in place, they can do anything. They all have have an equal chance in this life if there’s that level of support.

EJ Like you said, as well, there’s also that educational aspect that helps children to understand the nutrients involved in their food too.

SF Yeah. A lot of autistic children really struggle with food because they’re very sensitive to textures or smells and tastes. However, what I do is introduce to the dietary benefits of the foods they struggle with and explore how we can cook them or bake them in a way were they’re able to consume them. I use a lot of fruits and vegetables because we want to encourage healthy eating and gets the children comfortable with those foods.

EJ So what’s next for Baking On The Spectrum?

SF We’ve got a program that’s going to start in September with applications coming out soon. We’ve got one hundred packages to send out to families to help them get involved — we’d love to be able to send out thousands but the budget is quite limited. But, yeah, we’ll meet once a week online and bake together. We’re also looking into support for parents and carers as well so they’ll have someone to talk to about certain challenges the make have. There’s lots that we’re working towards but, yeah, this September will be when it starts. We’ve also got a YouTube series that’s going to come out as well so everyone can join in and it’s accessible, you know?

EJ Can we have a little teaser on the recipes?

SF Well there’s a mixture of sweet and savoury recipes that use a lot of different hand motions and techniques that kids will enjoy and benefit from.

EJ My final question for you then, as cliché as it may sound, is: what advice would you give for aspiring bakers?

SF Eat the cake. Sometimes things go wrong and things don’t come out perfectly. But just back yourself, eat the cake, try again the next day. A lot of people get discouraged when things go wrong but, well, is it edible? Can it be edible if you add ice cream? Then eat the cake. Get back to it. Learn from your mistakes and trust the process. @sandrofarmhouse