Meet The Blogger | London Bakes

Few blogs make me as hungry while reading as baking blogs, and London Bakes is another of my favourites. Kathryn focuses on gluten-free baking, sharing a wide range of delicious baked treats.

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Hello and welcome, plea­se introduce yourself and tell us a little about the kind of content you share.

Hello, my name is Kathryn and I write the blog London Bakes. I describe it as a mostly gluten free baking blog – so many people are intimated by gluten free baking and recipes that call for seven different types of flour but I like to keep my approach as simple as possible and show that baked goods without gluten can be just as good, if not better, than their flour-filled counterparts.

Is there a story behind your blog’s name?

I actually can’t remember what my blog’s original name was! It was something that I set up years ago and was more reflective of my aim at the time to write more of a personal/lifestyle blog than a food blog. As my focus narrowed to baking, I decided to change it to something which represented that better and so London Bakes was born.

Why did you choose to blog about baking?

For the last year or so, nearly all of my recipes have been gluten free. Whilst I can tolerate gluten without any problems, I often bake for family members who have coeliac disease and I like to make sure that they can eat everything that comes out of my kitchen. The more I bake gluten free, the more I enjoy the challenge that it presents and I find it so much more interesting than regular baking.

Does blogging about baking present any particular challenges?

Gluten free flours can be temperamental so it often takes a while to get a recipe that I’m happy with and there are some recipes that I just can’t seem to get, however hard I try (a good gluten free lemon tart eludes me, for one).

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Tell us the story of your most spectacular kitchen failure!

I have a bad habit of dropping cakes when taking them out of the oven and it’s nearly always when they’re for a specific event rather than just because I fancied baking a cake. One Saturday morning I was making a two layer chocolate cake for a family party and I dropped both layers on the floor. I’m afraid I burst into tears and went to wake my boyfriend up so he could clean up the mess while I sulked in the other room!

Which food or ingredients could you not live without?

I use a lot of nuts in my baking – the bottom drawer of my fridge is filled with them in various states (whole, chopped, ground) – and I couldn’t be without a bottle of extra virgin olive oil. I use it often in place of butter in my baking and love drizzling a little over vanilla ice cream.

Which food writers / chefs do you find most inspirational and in the same spirit, are there any particular cookery books you cherish above the rest of the shelf?

Definitely Nigel Slater. I use his book a lot and if I’m googling to find a recipe and one of his pops up, I’ll inevitably use it (and love it). He just makes the kind of food that I like to eat.

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If I were coming for dinner, what would you cook for me?

I’ve learnt my lesson from too many dinner parties where I’ve been stuck in the kitchen all night, trying to plate up an excessively complicated meal – now I’m much more likely to serve up something like a big lasagne with a side salad so that I can spend more time with you and less time stressing out in another room!

If we were meeting for a meal out, which restaurant would you choose?

I know this is a restaurant that Kate mentioned in your interview with her but I’d have to say The Truscott Arms too. Maybe we should organise a big blogger meet up there! [sounds good to me!]

If we were to take a trip together, where would we go?

I’ve loved reading all the posts that you’ve written about Japan and the enthusiasm that you have for the country (and the food!) so maybe you could show me round? It’s not somewhere that I’ve ever been and I would love to go there.

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Since you started blogging, has your style and content changed over time, and if so, in what ways?

I definitely blogged more frequently when I first started but I soon realised that wasn’t sustainable. Now I focus on getting out a post every week or so but ensuring that it’s something that I’m proud to post rather than just posting for sake of it. I hope that my photography has improved over time as well but it’s one of the parts of blogging that I most struggle with.

What is the hardest aspect of blogging for you?

For me it’s definitely balancing blogging with work/home. I’ve been travelling a lot recently with my job and I’ve had to neglect the blog a little as there’s just hasn’t been enough time to fit it in.

What inspires you to keep blogging regularly?

I think blogging pushes me to get more adventurous in the kitchen and experiment with new ingredients and techniques. I also love the fact that having to come up with a new post forces me to think about something other than my fay job for a few hours a week.

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What are you absolutely loving cooking, eating, doing right now?

I have a long and enduring love for using buckwheat flour in my kitchen – I use it for muffins, cookies, cakes, waffles, pancakes, everything really! It’s the most well-behaved flour I’ve come across and I love the slight grassy flavour that it has; it works so well with chocolate and winter spices like ginger and cinnamon.

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What’s the single most popular post on your blog?

I’m not sure if it’s the most popular post ever but the most popular post this year by far is these flourless salted dark chocolate cookies. They’re very easy to make but super, super chocolate-y which is all that I really want in a recipe!

Can we give a little extra love and attention to a post you love but didn’t catch the attention of your readers in the way you hoped?

Maybe the plum, ginger and almond cake that I made earlier this year? I think it’s one of the absolute prettiest cakes I’ve made (although I haven’t set the bar particularly high) and it’s really delicious.

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Blog URL: http://londonbakes.com
Facebook page: http://facebook.com/londonbakes
Twitter handle: http://twitter.com/londonbakes
Pinterest profile http://www.pinterest.com/londonbakes
Instagram handle: http://instagram.com/londonbakes

 

Enjoyed this interview? Read the rest of my Meet The Blogger series, here.

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12 Comments to "Meet The Blogger | London Bakes"

  1. kaveyeats

    Lovely to introduce people to a blog they don’t know, I love sharing my favourite blogs and bloggers!

    Reply
  2. kellie@foodtoglow

    I am so glad to be introduced to Kathryn. Her blog sounds just like something I would love to peruse. I like the challenge of making gluten-free treats too, even though I am not coeliac. I am loving chestnut flour right now and also like to use buckwheat flour too. Her recipes sound gorgeous and the images are so enticing too. Must go over and see her blog for myself!

    Reply
    kaveyeats

    Hi Kellie, yes I think you share a common interest in terms of your cooking styles and ingredients. Definitely a blog to add to your RSS reader!

    Reply
  3. Sandra C.

    Hello, my name is Sandra and I like London Bakes blog very much, but I haven’t been able to acces its web page recently. Do you know what happened and if I can find her recipes somewhere else.

    Reply
    kaveyeats

    I’m really sorry, I don’t. I’ve just sent a message to the contact I have, will let you know if I hear back.

    Reply
    kaveyeats

    Hi Sandra, yes sorry I forgot to update. I heard back that she had decided to stop blogging for a while and then the site broke. She said she’d like to get it back up at some point but that it’s not a priority just at the moment. ❤️

    Reply

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