About

Hi there. My name is Janine and I love to bake.

My Background:

Born in the concrete graveyard for commerce that is Plymouth, I spent the first 18 years of my life in the depths of the Devon countryside. I spent my teens at a single-sex grammar school in Plymouth before leaving to study towards a degree in chemistry at the opposite end of the country. I fell in love with Newcastle and its lack of rain, beautiful architecture and vast number of foodie ventures. Unfortunately, with very few chemical companies nearby (and zero food manufacturers), four years later, Chemistry MChem (Hons) degree in hand, it was time to leave...

I am now resident in Birmingham, working at a company that tests food for its nutritional value. I worked on fatty acid composition (saturated, mono- and poly-unsaturated fats) of food samples for about a year, and have spent nearly three years working on analysing foods for their dietary fibre content. It wasn't what I intended to get into, but now I've spent a few years in the industry I'm getting passionate about it. One of my party tricks is guessing how much dietary fibre there is in a food product!

Baking:

I started baking with my mum as a child, but only really got addicted after my first year at university, when I didn't have any of the essential equipment one needs to bake. I found I really missed being able to make cakes on a whim, so from my second year onwards I started baking at least once a week, much to the glee of my housemates. 

One day in 2011, I was researching how to make a rainbow cake when I stumbled on the fantastic baking blog, Whisk Kid. After becoming engrossed in Kaitlin's website, I asked myself why I couldn't do something similar. Then and there, I found a blogging platform and made the blog, starting with a post on Flapjacks. Honestly, I never really expected the blog to become such a big part of my life, and never realised what a huge food blogging community there is. I've met so many interesting and friendly people through networking with other bloggers, and now can't imagine a world where I don't have Cake Of The Week to share my life and recipes.

Much as I love baking, I often try to limit my fat intake (often sugar as well), so I often aim my recipes at being better for you. I don't believe the myth that low fat tastes worse than full fat, and I intend to prove it with my baking.

I hope you enjoy reading my blog - please feel free to comment, and I'd love to hear how it went if you tried one of my recipes for yourself!