An award-winning Angus café is teaching people how to bake their favourite cakes using ingredients they have at home.
The Wee Bear Café, run by Gareth Finn and his wife Anne, was locked down last month.
But that didn’t stop the husband and wife team from treating their customers, as they moved online to provide baking masterclasses to their followers.
Based at the Bridgend of Lintrathen, near Kirriemuir, the family-run café has built up a loyal following over the years and was named Independent Café of the Year at The Courier’s Food and Drink Menu Awards 2020.
After seeing locals struggle to buy essential items such as bread from supermarkets, Gareth wanted to demonstrate how easy breadmaking can be.
Following the success of Gareth’s video, Anne shared her well-known Victoria Sponge recipe in the hopes of getting the community baking.
Delighted viewers shared their baking triumphs – and tribulations – on the café’s social media, thanks to the Finn’s masterclass, with families in Austria even testing the popular recipes.
The cafe, an extension of the Lodge at Lochside, opened five years ago and is named after their dog Bear.
Gareth said: “We felt like we were more than just a café, we were part of a great community.
“Judging by the response on our Facebook, the videos have reached much further than our local community.
“A person in Austria had visited our café during the holidays and were taken in because our café goes back to that European style where people know each other and become good friends so it was good to see the videos reach them too.”
Gareth and Anne hope to be able to share more of the renowned café’s recipes in the future.
The duo are also supporting the local community by setting up a link with Les Turriff, a Dundee-based fruit and vegetable wholesaler.
The lodge will now act as a community drop-off for the wholesalers to help the local community collect their fresh food orders.
