The Great British Bake Off (and beyond)

Istarted baking when I was about 18, way before it was fashionable. I found some notebooks of my mum’s with recipes and just went from there. When I joined Harvest Church in Glasgow in 2009, it was a new church and baking quickly became an important aspect and one that I was immediately a part of.

I like to push myself. I’m a musician and a music teacher so the idea of practising something again and again to make it as perfect as possible seems natural to me. I also like to perform, so baking in general and then GBBO in particular were a way of sharing that sense of creativity with others. Because I’m used to performing as a musician, I had no nerves at all which definitely helped me on the show. I got through to week seven of the ten in the recent series that was screened in autumn

2022. While I’d been baking for years this was the first time I’d actually created new recipes, and I loved that business of bringing different textures and flavour combinations together.

My favourite creation was actually the one that saw me off the show. It was 'custard week.' We had to create a gateau using a set custard and mine involved panna cotta, honey, thyme and bay. Unfortunately it didn’t quite set properly and certainly didn’t look great— decorating is never my strong point! However, Pru Leith’s comment was, 'That custard will stay with me forever.' The texture and flavour combination had worked perfectly!

The show was the hardest thing I’ve ever done but such a lot of fun. I made great friends, and I am looking forward to exploring more baking creativity and possibly getting into food writing in the future. For me, baking is a way of showing love and esteem to others and is an important aspect of my faith, along with music and worship leading.

I was pleased to be able to talk about my faith as part of the show and had some lovely comments and feedback from Christians elsewhere in the world who appreciated my openness about my faith.

I’ve always enjoyed working with young people. I’m a music teacher and have been able to volunteer with SU Scotland in the school holidays. PreCovid I’d volunteered at a drama camp and then, after a break, had the opportunity to join a team at Scoughall.

Last summer, before GBBO, it was brilliant to spend time at Scoughall. I loved the location—the cabins are fabulous outdoor accommodation. The range of activities is such a lot of fun, and it’s wonderful to be connecting with both the team and an amazing group of young people. One of the young people and I went head-to-head in a blindfolded cake decorating competition, and guess what? The young person won! Told you I was no good at decorating!

In 2023 I’m looking forward to volunteering at Scoughall once again and, for the first time, at the Baking camp at Gowanbank in October… well it makes sense, doesn’t it?

Kevin Flynn

It feels weird to already be almost halfway through my gap year. It doesn’t feel like that much time could have passed. When I chose to do Gap Year, I was just coming to the end of my university course and somewhat unsure about what steps to take next. I felt a calling into missionary care but also real confidence that there would be some steps out of that context to get there. I was debating options for my next year trying to take it a step at a time, which is very hard when I like to be planned three steps ahead.

I already knew SU Scotland very well. Previously I have served on the Student Executive and have been part of many teams and different events. I felt like I needed a bit of space after university to process those few years of my life and to rest and listen to God about where the next steps would take us. I think it was late May or early June when I first emailed Kirsten to ask about doing the Gap Year programme.

I wasn’t sure at the time that I wanted to do it or that SU would take me but we met on Zoom and talked about what I would want from a gap year. I thought about it and did lots of verbal processing with Kirsten on the call about why I loved helping with SU and why I was picking this option over any other. But as I was quite late on the train, I didn’t have too long to dwell before I had to get going with the application process before it would be too late.

During the process, I chose what topics I wanted to study, I offered my opinion on where I would like to be based, and what I wanted my work to focus on.

I am spending my year doing Gap:Fusion. This means I spend some of my time with David Clipston, helping with the COmMISSION programme and other Young Leader Development tasks. The other half I spend working with local churches in Ayr where I am based for the year. This is mainly with their weekly youth groups and wider youth events in Ayrshire.

Coming into this year after university has been strange in some ways, such as living with a host family rather than in my own space, but it has also been super rewarding. I get to step out in my faith taking the lessons I have learned, and then pass that wisdom on (hopefully!) to the youth I see every week and those training to be leaders and also through things like our podcast or at Equip events. It has been amazing to see how often God has set me up with prior experiences to be able to answer people’s questions. I cannot wait to see how God continues to use me in part two! 

Jo Bailey