The Pocket Bakery

The Pocket Bakery has now come to a close - for the time being at least - five years after it began. It has been a tremendous success for all involved and has created a platform for other projects, not least the Pocket Bakery book. Read about how it all came to be below.

The Pocket Bakery Story

The Pocket Bakery began in the summer of 2010 as a solution to the dilemma of food writer Rose's children, Jack and Lara, then aged 14 and 11. The problem was that of pocket money, and how Jack and Lara might earn their own spending money in a constructive and positive way. Rose came up with the idea of starting a little bakery in their own home and selling loaves to neighbours, dubbing it 'The Pocket Bakery.'

Since then, the Pocket Bakery has developed into something so much more. The first step was a lesson in the art of baking sourdough bread, which was provided, along with the 'mother' yeast, by Giuseppe Mascoli of Brixton's Franco Manca pizzeria fame. Using the organically produced flour of Michael Stoate and Giuseppe's starter dough, Rose baked the first batch of bread and sold it to neighbours, thus whetting the appetite of Jack and Lara to make the Pocket Bakery the success that it is today.

By its second year of business, the Pocket Bakery's weekly opening had become a community event, and before long Jack went off to the Daylesford Organic bakery in Oxfordshire to train as a professional baker. Meanwhile the Pocket Bakery itself found a new home in Doodle Bar, a quirky bar tucked away five minutes from Rose's home and began selling pies and sweet things.

In 2013, the Pocket Bakery took another leap forward as it was approached by Fortnum and Mason to pop-up for two weeks on the first floor of the iconic department store.

The Pocket Bakery book is out now. To order a signed copy, simply email dominic@dominicprince.co.uk