Rebecca Archman meets builder-turned award-winning baker Mark Hart
Baking and building houses may not strike most of us as the most compatible of trades, but Mark Hart has made a successful switch from one to the other.
Within 18 months of setting up the Sweethart café and bakery in Blackhill, Co Durham, he picked up a coveted Gold at the Great Taste 2013 awards for his baked egg custard and then appeared in the ITV series Britain’s Best Bakery.
“It was quite surreal seeing myself on TV,” he says, “and it had been filmed so long ago, back in the early summer, I’d forgotten a lot of what I’d said. It was a fantastic experience though. The judges said amazing things about my egg custard.”
Mark’s become quite the celeb with his customers since the show aired in January, and his reputation – and that of the famed egg custard – has spread far and wide. “We’ve been busy with people coming from as far afield as Yorkshire and Carlisle,” says Mark. “Demand has been so great, I think I could bake that egg custard blindfolded now.”
It’s quite a turnaround for Mark, who left the building trade following a back operation. “The journey of Sweethart Coffee and Cake really started then,” he says. “I’d been making wedding and novelty cakes after work in the evenings and I was selling them to family and friends. When I had the op I had to make a career choice and this seemed the natural thing to do.”
His passion for baking started in childhood, when he stood on a stool in the kitchen making a mess and being rewarded with the mixing spoon. “As I grew up, I kept it up. I was a bit of a closet baker in my teens,” he says.
Sweethart Coffee and Cake opened in summer 2012 and it’s gone from strength to strength, boosted by that Great Taste Award. “I sent away my entry not expecting anything, so getting the Gold was fantastic. I’ve caught the bug now and next time I’m entering our bread.”
Ahead of his appearance on Britain’s Best Bakery in January, Mark contributed to the 2013 Food Glorious Food cookbook, which accompanied the TV series. The deadline for that was tight, so over just one weekend he developed a baked trifle recipe and submitted it without making it.
“When it was accepted I thought I’d better try it out to see if it was any good! Luckily, it was,” he says of the dish, which won approval from food expert and judge (and Prince Charles’s step-son) Tom Parker Bowles.
Mark will have a number of recipes in this year’s Britain’s Best Bakery book and he assures us the baked egg custard recipe will be included. In the meantime there’s plenty at Sweethart.
Sweethart Coffee and Cake, Derwent Street, Blackhill, Consett, tel 01207 501100, www.sweethart-cakes.co.uk
Recipe: Mark’s sultana scones
Recipe: Mark’s white bread
Sweethart Coffee and Cake, Derwent Street, Blackhill, Consett, tel 01207 501100, www.sweethart-cakes.co.uk
