Fiona is a chocolatière in Ely, Cambridgeshire, serving the county and beyond. She is a former cancer research scientist and winner of the inaugural 2013 Cambridge Bake Off. Since winning the Bake Off, Fiona has long since hung up her lab coat in favour of a more creative outlet in the world of chocolate and cakes, and is now the proud winner of Velvet Magazine’s Food Producer of the Year (2024).
My route into cakes, chocolate and gourmet sweets was not a conventional one. I initially trained as a biologist at the University of Cambridge, but keen for a creative outlet to offset the academic demands of lab life, I started baking and decorating cakes for friends, family and colleagues (much to their delight!).
Over the years that followed, this interest and passion for all things cake grew. In 2013 I won the inaugural Cambridge Bake Off, which gave me the confidence boost to quit my day job and start my own food business, back then focusing primarily on celebration cakes and pâtisserie. I didn’t quite hang up my lab coat as a scientist altogether though, as my background is a big part of what I do now. I love the precision and accuracy that is needed in fine baking and chocolate work – even when I cook savoury recipes, I much prefer Heston Blumenthal’s clinically exact temperatures and timings over anything else! The Covid Lockdown years saw my business evolve from custom in-person cake orders (which during that time largely dried up) to nationwide dispatch of gourmet chocolate bars and other sweet treats. And this is where my passion now lies: in creating fine chocolates using only the best ingredients that can be shipped across the country - indeed the world (I have returning customers as far flung as Canada and the USA).
Since chocolate has become my business focus and passion, I have obtained a deeper understanding of the wide-spread (but not necessarily widely-known) unethical practices involved in chocolate production. As a result, I am determined to source and use chocolate only from those companies and small businesses who share my ethical values to protect people and the environment. I am proud to use exceptional craft bean-to-bar chocolate from the likes of Pump Street Chocolate in Suffolk, as well as chocolate a little less close to home, such as that from B-Corp certified República del Cacao, amongst others.
Precision, attention to detail and exceptional flavour is central to all of my work. I’m excited for you to try!