Chelsea New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker judge Julia Crownshaw returns with fellow judge Dean Brettschneider to show us how to bake some classic desserts with a twist, and some modern-day sweet treats destined to become new favourites on Food TV’s The Sugar Club. Here, Julia talks about what makes The Sugar Club extra sweet.
For The Sugar Club co-host Julia Crownshaw, becoming a TV personality “wasn’t part of the game plan” but she’s enjoying the ride.
The co-founder of indulgently delicious dessert company Dollop says her business partner nominated her for the judging role on Chelsea New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker and after a successful season scrutinising the cakes and pastries of New Zealand’s baking novices, Julia’s career as a TV presenter has taken off.
While baking (and eating) sweet treats might be the ultimate job, there’s also a strange, soothing pleasure in watching others bake. The appeal of cooking shows is not so much in the opportunity to recreate the dishes made, but to relive the memories of childhood kitchen smells, and best of all, mum passing the icing bowl down to be scraped and devoured. The tempting array of sweets on display in The Sugar Club will take you right back to pulling on mum’s pinny on a Saturday morning.
On The Sugar Club, Dean and Julia compete to create the best desserts, using innovation and imagination to put a spin on some timeless classics of the cake kitchen. Part of the fun of the show is the gentle rivalry Julia and Dean have on display, but Julia says while they like to give each other stick, their cheeky banter is just good-natured ribbing.
“We’re actually quite good friends so it’s all in fun, but you know, I think that works quite well in the kitchen. We’re good buddies but we like to rile each other up a little bit, and we’ve got quite different styles, so it kind of works perfectly.
“[Dean] is very sure of himself, but he’s got quite a different background to me. He’s been a chef, a patissier and a chef for a very long time and he’s been trained in it, and he’s bloody good at what he does, he’s a very, very good baker, but he knows it,” Julia says with a laugh
While Julia’s background is in food science, which is the study of the chemistry of food, she’s been baking her whole life and says that in her family, if you wanted a sweet treat you baked it yourself. Having a love of home cooking from a young age instilled in Julia an appreciation for “proper good food” and she says this philosophy helped develop the ethos behind her own company.
“I guess what helps the most is just actually being, not a home baker, but coming from a line of people who cooked for themselves, so my family have always, we’ve always cooked for ourselves, we never went and got a Sara Lee dessert, we always baked something ourselves.”
The resurgence of home baking in recent years was partly borne out of a desire for people to reconnect with lost skills and take back control of the ingredients found in our food. However, home baking is at odds with that other modern day obsession, maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Julia says that for her, the key to indulging sensibly is to use only the best ingredients and watch your portions.
“Baking is not meant to be healthy, it’s meant to be a treat, so it’s all about making that treat the best possible treat you can by using great ingredients, no substitutes, you use real chocolate and you use real butter and all those sorts of things, but you have it as a treat, you don’t have it every single day, you don’t have four pieces of cake a day.
“I’d rather have a little bit of something absolutely amazing than a whole lot of low fat versions of cakes and things. That’s what I believe anyway.”
Overseven episodes of The Sugar Club, Julia and Dean will be baking and creating such sugary delights as brandy snaps, treacle tarts and carrot cake. The first episode is dedicated to the whoopie pie, a traditionally American treat which is a close relative of the ginger kiss, minus the ginger. So which of the sweet treats is Julia’s favourite?
“The best to make, I love making panneforte, we make panneforte with spiced hazelnuts. It’s just a really cool product because you can basically put absolutely anything in there and you get quite a different product and it’s a cross between confectionary and a cake so it’s quite cool to make, I really enjoy making that one.
“To eat, it’s got to be baked cheesecake, really naughty but so delicious.”
The Sugar Club
Food TV
Sundays from 10 June, 4.30pm
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