Hi! I’m Jo, a self-taught home baker from South Wales, UK. I’m an optometrist by day but try to fit baking into my life as much as possible. I’m lucky to have colleagues, friends, family and neighbours who are all willing to be my taste testers, and especially now that I test and develop my own recipes for Baker Jo!
Anyone who knows me knows that I’m pretty obsessed with baking. I guess it started when I qualified as an Optometrist in July 2013. I suddenly had all of this free time after work and at weekends, what with not having any more revision and exams to do. The baking urge just came out of nowhere, and I haven’t looked back since!
The first recipe I attempted was a chocolate brownie recipe by Gordon Ramsay. At this
Despite the huge guess work involved, the brownies came out of the oven and looked (and smelled) of delicious brownies!
I’m also not joking when I say that my brownies still remain a popular bake of mine (though I am now a meticulous baker with a digital scale for exact measurements). Anyway, I like to think I’ve come a long way since then!
Fast forward to the end of 2018 and something changed in my head. Maybe turning 30 did it, but I started to get this strong feeling that I wanted baking to be more than just a hobby. It makes me so happy to bake for family and friends, and although it can be stressful when things don’t go the way I planned, I also find it’s the best way for me to relax and feel truly in my comfort zone.
I’ve grown up not really having a hobby that I’ve stuck at, or a sport I’ve been particularly good at, and then baking came along! I genuinely feel passionate about baking and love the idea of somehow incorporating it into my life more.
I wanted to create a website featuring my own personally tested recipes. My goal is to build confidence in my readers that my recipes are easy to follow and are worth the effort. The perfectionist in me will make sure I don’t publish a recipe unless I’m really proud of it and confident you will enjoy it too!
I want you, my readers, to feel comfortable reading through my recipes, navigating through my site and most importantly, comfortable to contact me with any questions or feedback. I promise I will get back to you as soon as I can!
Happy baking!!
Jo xxx
