I grew up in Gweedore in Co Donegal, where I still live with my parents. I’m 20 now. I started off making the odd birthday cake for my brothers, from when I was eight years old. My older brothers Tiarnan, Lochlann and Caolan were my first taste testers. Chocolate cake was their favourite. They always fought over who got to lick the batter off the spoons.
I was always watching baking videos on YouTube and shows like The Great British Bake Off. During the ad breaks, I’d go into the kitchen and start trying to make something myself. One evening I was watching Jamie Oliver cook a dinner, and the sweet segment was a hummingbird cake, with pecans, bananas and pineapple. When the show was over, I went online and got the recipe and baked it straight away. My family still talk about that cake.
When I was 13, my brothers all had summer jobs and I was too young to get employed anywhere. My dad, Steve, suggested I bake for the local cafes: I had done a few Christmas fairs before that. He sat me down and taught me about margins and profits, and we put together a list of what we could sell; a small variety of tray bakes and cupcakes.
People started hearing there was a local baker. I set up a Facebook page. Then I started getting some inquiries, and taking on some orders. It was the foundation of the customer base that I now have.
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In transition year, I reached out to the Firehouse Bakery in Wicklow. I emailed and asked if they would take someone on for work experience. That was so memorable – seeing a commercial kitchen and professional bakers. I really relished it.
I did a week’s experience with The Happy Pear too. I learned a bit about how they did their media and marketing, and that was invaluable. That year, I came across Bread 41 (a bakery on Pearse Street) on social media and thought it looked class. I was 16 then.
By the time transition year finished, I was at this crossroads. I had just spent the year developing my business, Cácaí Aoibhín, and it had momentum. Instead of doing my Leaving Cert, I chose to do the Leaving Cert Applied, which was offered at my school, Pobalscoil Gaoth Dobhair. It meant I could pursue the bakery career that I wanted to have, and wouldn’t have the same pressures of the standard Leaving Cert.
For one week every month during fifth year, I travelled to Bread 41 in Dublin for work experience, and stayed with my auntie while I was there. Then Covid hit, and we had to stay at home. I started baking a lot of occasion cakes for people who were at home in lockdown and wanted to make more of a deal out of family things like birthdays because they couldn’t go out.
I finished out my years in secondary school, and decided I was going to keep at this bakery business. I had made enough to build my own bakery: we converted a shipping container into a commercial kitchen at the back of our house. That allowed me to take on more orders.
During lockdown, a local parents’ organisation started doing some online baking lessons with kids through Irish via Zoom, and I taught some of them. Then I was approached by a local production company to see if I was interested in filming a pilot: baking classes for kids through Irish. Gweedore is a small place, and everyone knows everyone else: I’d always have been in and out of Raidió na Gaeltachta, for instance.
We filmed a pilot over a day, and that was very cool. We got word it was something of interest for TG4 and then the conversation started about filming a series. Last year, we did the filming for the show; six episodes that we filmed on a set in Donegal. I got to work with some kids as well, and we made queen cakes and banana bread and cookies.
The show is called Cacaí Álainn, and it’s going to go out on Cula4, targeting eight to 12 year olds. I would definitely be open to doing more television presenting.
Somewhere along the way this summer, I squeezed in being one of the Marys from Dungloe; I was the Wild Atlantic Way Mary.
I am still developing my business. I do cakes for various occasions. I also supply coffee shops; biscuits, Viennese swirls, lemon drizzle cake, chocolate and sea salt brownies. Everyone loves a brownie. - In conversation with Rosita Boland
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