above: the bread I baked at home just before the last sourdough class, which we ate with lunch.

I’ll be running more ‘hands-on’ sourdough bread making classes at Cookery School, Little Portland Street, London during 2012, and the first few dates are:

It’s not often that I’m out in the big ol’ world, just baking, but for certain days it seems the right thing. So for World Aids Day on December 1st I’ll be doing just that: for one evening at the Wandsworth Oasis charity bookshop at 17, Trinity Road, Tooting, South London. It’s a small charity in my area of south London, helping local people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS, and having lost many very close friends over the years to this illness I thought I’d make a start by doing more to help them.

I’ll be holding two baking demonstrations this Saturday 5th November in Oswestry, Shropshire, one at 11am on breadmaking (everything from the simplest to the most complex loaves) and one at 3pm cake baking (yes, we’ll talk about Bonfire parkin) and icing. Really looking forward to this day. The Walls Restaurant where we’ll get together this Saturday is a beautiful old former school house built in the early 1800s (somewhat bizarrely, the rock band Marillion recorded an album there in 1998), and Booka Bookshop who’s bright idea it was to host the day, is one of those modern independent booksellers that inspire me.

A quick note to let you know about two baking events this week: