The first thing you should know about Glenrothes baker Kerrie Gourlay is that she doesn’t eat cake.
I am, frankly, gobsmacked.
“After 13 years of making cakes, I don’t eat it anymore,” she tells me.
“None of my family do either. My kids, my hubby, none of us eat cake anymore.”
It’s no wonder, considering the number of cakes Kerrie makes, from celebration cakes, wedding cakes and edible favours.
Like many, it was baking at a young age with a relative which inspired Kerrie’s passion for baking.
“I’ve always baked. I used to bake with my nan when I was six,” she says.
“The recipe that I use today is still her recipe.
“Before she died, she would come every Tuesday for her dinner – and I’d put her to work helping me bake too,” she laughs.
Kerrie went to art college, then studied psychology, before settling on baking 13 years ago. And she hasn’t looked back since.
But that doesn’t mean there haven’t been challenges along the way.
‘The night before my wedding, I was green with food colouring’
Last year, Kerrie bravely decided to bake her own wedding cake.
“We got married in December,” Kerrie says.
“We have been together for 15 years.
“And I baked my own wedding cake.
“Would I recommend to anyone to bake their own wedding cake? No.
“If I was doing it again, would I make it? No,” she laughs.
“I actually delivered the cake to the venue the night before, so I had to have it ready for then.
“Because I got married in December, green and gold was my colour scheme.
“But it was a total nightmare. My airbrush [device used to apply edible colouring] decided to stop working the night before the wedding.
“I was airbrushing emerald green onto the cake.
“So the night before my wedding, I ended up green with food colouring.
“And I was due to get a spray tan once I’d delivered the cake!
“So I was scrubbing at my skin, using stain remover for clothes to try to get the green off.”
Kerrie made a four-tier cake for her intimate wedding, with two real tiers which were salted caramel and vanilla flavour.
“We didn’t actually tell anybody that we were getting married,” she explains.
“We just told our parents and siblings.
“Everyone was invited to my 40th, and then we turned up in wedding attire and went ‘surprise!'”
Kerrie’s quirky firewalking hobby
On top of her baking career, Kerrie also dips her toe – or rather, both feet – into firewalking.
“It’s walking on hot coals,” she explains.
She has been doing it for around seven years.
Kerrie’s father is actually a firewalking “master”.
“You need to walk with purpose,” she says. “You don’t want to run, you don’t need to walk too slow.
“You need to walk like you’re running five minutes late for a bus.”
So why does Kerrie enjoy this unusual hobby?
“It’s a sense of achievement,” she says. “If you can do that, what else could you do in life?
“On our training course, you have to do 108 [walks back and forth] in one night.
“It’s not painful at all. It is mind over matter. It’s hot, don’t get me wrong, it is hot. But it’s not painful.
“I think everyone should experience it [firewalking] at least once.”
She also does walking on broken glass – for fun.
“That’s the opposite to the firewalking,” says Kerrie, “you need to really think about where you’re walking.”
Fife baker Kerrie: ‘I am in a job that I love’
I asked Kerrie what she is most proud of over the last 13 years.
“Just still being going after all of this time,” she candidly tells me.
“And I’m going from strength to strength.
“I am most proud of still being in business after all of this time.
“I’m not stuck in a mundane job that I hate, where I feel sick at the thought of going into every day.
“That’s how I felt in my last job.
“I’m just genuinely grateful everyday that I am in a job that I love.”
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