What is a Vecreation?

There I am; 3 years old, happy as Larry! The start of my great baking love affair!

Growing up, I would spend every waking moment in the kitchen; baking was my passion, my escape and later my saviour…

I grew up with an abusive father, let’s just say it was hard. I would escape into the kitchen and find therapy in creating something beautiful from nothing, it was pure magic for me. I dreamed every day of having my own baking business. 

My father liked to attack my happy moments and would try to sabotage my efforts; whether this was opening the kitchen cupboards in my face, using a lawnmower to destroy my crops, or threatening me with a knife, he found a way. I fought back, even to the point of going to court to obtain a non-molestation order when he was making it impossible for me to use the kitchen to cook for my mum and myself (my mum was recovering from a hospital stay after being told she would need surgery for what they suspected was cancer, it was brutal.) Needless to say; starting a business from my home kitchen with my dad around was never going to happen! But still, I dreamed.

Fast forward 30 years and my father has passed away, I was free to realise my dream. I gave up an opportunity to work in Disney World Florida, plans were made to create a professional kitchen in the house and life could finally begin! Unfortunately, at the last minute the plan was taken out of my hands and cancelled, this broke my heart and was a blow that sent me off track for a while. I travelled to escape life and its disappointments. 

On my journey of self-discovery, I became vegan, fuelled with extreme passion to share the vegan message, and with a baking dream shelved because of the impossibility of having a suitable kitchen; I started a vegan t-shirt business. I didn’t love selling t-shirts; I was doing it because there were no barriers, no one could stop me and I wanted to share the vegan message. One of my designs was loved by the community, but essentially the business was a disaster. Failing taught me everything I needed to know about business, I’m glad I failed and learned those valuable lessons. 

In the meantime, my mum moved to another area, having a professional kitchen in her house wouldn’t work here for various reasons, renting on my own meant working more than full time which would leave no time for a baking business, hiring a kitchen was logistically and financially unviable and I couldn’t build a unit either. There was nowhere for me to go with it so I travelled again.

On my travels I experienced a life in Jerusalem, this story is a novel in itself; far too long to explain here, but let’s really simplify it to a break-up that left me emptier and more broken than I had been before, I was on empty. 

So, I moved back with my mum, knowing that I had to hide away and heal and fight back once more. I had been running away from all the hurt and the pain and disguising it as being a free spirit travelling, it was time to re-build my life. 

The only thing (aside from my incredible best friends) that pulled me from the emptiness was the baking; I started to veganise my old recipes and found that I could do it really well, I remember the moment I created the french fancies and thought shit, these taste exactly like the originals! So I started recreating more favourites that I hadn’t had since going vegan. The great love of my life had returned and was standing by me in my hour of need; pulling me through my nothingness. With each creation I came back to life a little more until Vecreation was borne. I also learned that my real passion was in recipe development rather than simply baking. 

My cakes got me a fantastic job in the North East, I rented a house and soon after moving, my kitchen was given a 5* rating by environmental health. I sat there after the EH officer had left and shed a tear; I had finally done it! Unfortunately, (out of my control again) this situation didn't last, but I don't think the next steps would have been possible without it.

So I'm back at my mums house again (thanks mum) and I innocently posted a picture of a Vecreation in the Vegan Food UK group and things went a little crazy! Thousands of likes and hundreds of comments later and I had tangible evidence that I had to continue the fight! 

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I always kept my recipes very closely guarded, it was never my intention to release them, I had always been looking to collaborate or to work as a product developer and have my recipes produced for supermarkets. After a while of trying and meeting resistance, I remember looking at my box of secret recipes and thinking I don't want to be 80 years old and regret not making different movements.

I was very nervous about releasing them; it not only weakened my position commercially but on a deeper level it meant exposing something that meant everything to me, the baking had always been my safe space and now I was opening it up to the world... 

But then one day a mother and daughter commented on a picture of Charlie, they had the sweetest banter between them and got so excited at the idea of having a vegan caterpillar cake at their celebration. Those family moments mean the world to me so I felt that! It gave me the nod I needed to start releasing the recipes.

So last year, I stepped out of my comfort zone and started sharing my recipes. Soon after this Biscoff Charlie went viral, featuring on pages like the Independant and LadBible and many more! This felt like the achievement I had been waiting so long for... 

A few weeks after that and two more Vecreations went viral, then Charlie went viral again at the end of 2020.

 I've also been fortunate enough to be involved in the exciting community projects; "Like Bake Off, But Vegan" in 2020 and 'Bake Club' in 2021. 

Please join me on this journey and know that by supporting Vecreation, you become a part of a great love story and a life-long dream. 

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Be brave, step out of your comfort zone and have no regrets!