The Great British Bake Off is arguably the most feel-good bit of telly around, but 2018 finalist Kim-Joy Hewlett seriously upped the charm levels with her always-sunny disposition and determination to fit adorable creatures into all baked goods – from cats to turtles to alpacas.
On the release of her debut cookbook, Baking With Kim-Joy, we grilled the Leeds-based cook and baking columnist on her culinary life.
She has some very strong thoughts on breakfast foods in particular…
Your death row meal would be…
“It would be massive, the size of this table, and I’d have loads of different Indian curries, tarka daal and paneer curry, and all the different Indian breads, like paratha, garlic naan, chapatis, but I’m more about the garlic naan.
“Then a proper rustic loaf, salted butter, tiny bit of jam – all homemade, and made by the best of the best, not by me. Indian, Chinese and Thai food, all at once, like a banquet, so I could have a little bit of everything.
“For dessert I’d have a pandan chiffon cake, a Japanese cotton cheesecake which is really nice, and lots of different gelato flavours, and cheese! Camembert! And then maybe some decorated biscuits as well – I just want it all, a nice mango lassi and cups of tea – sorry, this is too long. I like food!”
The thing you still can’t make is…
“It’s all about learning though – oh yeah, meat! Because I don’t like the taste of meat, so I never really tried to cook it.”
Your favourite store-cupboard essential has to be…
“Butter.”
The kitchen utensil you couldn’t live without is…
“My KitchenAid.”
Your signature dish is…
“A pandan chiffon cake.”
You like your eggs…
“I only like them one way, and no other ways – it’s easy. I like them in between soft and hard boiled. Just slightly runny but I’m able to bite it. But I don’t like scrambled – I don’t really like breakfast foods. I don’t actually eat breakfast, I just skip to lunch.”
Your childhood dinners were…
“Awful! Dinner was awful! Potatoes, some form of veg and some form of meat. Liver, green beans, potatoes – that’s why I really don’t like meat, because I was forced to eat it when I was a child.”
Last night you ate…
“We had Quorn Bolognese.”
If you’re ordering takeout, it has to be…
“Indian.”
Your ultimate hangover cure is…
“I don’t really drink anymore, so I haven’t had a hangover in ages, yay! I don’t really like the taste of alcohol. [But it would be] something greasy and fatty like chips or cheese.”
You really cannot stomach…
“Meat and bananas. I have a thing about bananas, they’re really weird. They make other fruit rot – I don’t trust it. They have to be segregated in the kitchen.”
Baking With Kim-Joy: Cute And Creative Bakes To Make You Smile by Kim-Joy, photography by Ellis Parrinder, is published by Quadrille, priced £18.99. Available now.
