Cork teen: ‘I am really excited to put my baking skills to the test’

It’s no wonder that 16-year-old Lucy Tate from Youghal is a finalist in the inaugural Junior National Brown Bread Baking Competition at the National Ploughing Championships in Screggan, Tullamore, Co. Offaly this year.

“My granny was a chef,” says Lucy, who has enjoyed baking now for 10 years.

“She is a great baker. And my mum works as a chef.”

Ah, then it figures why Lucy has inherited her expert baking technique, her light-fingered touch, and her understanding that baking is an exact science where measuring ingredients carefully, controlling temperatures, and timing every step dictate success.

“I am really excited to put my skills to the test at the brown bread making competition,” says Lucy. She is not even slightly fazed by baking live in front of a crowd at the ploughing championships this year.

“That doesn’t bother me,” she says.

Lucy got the good news on her birthday that she made the final cut, being one of eight finalists in the Junior Brown Bread Baking Competition sponsored by Euronics and in association with the NPA and ICA.

“All entrants were asked to drop their freshly baked loaf of bread to one of the local stores at a designated date that were drop off points,” says Lucy, explaining the judging process to qualify as a finalist.

“I dropped my bread to Bandon on July 24.”

Lucy had a secret ingredient in her baking cupboard.

“I’ve been going to Finola of Messy Fingers from a very young age,” says Lucy.

“Messy Fingers is a children’s baking and sugar craft business near Youngrove on the main Dungourney Road.”

Amazing things are created at Messy Fingers.

“Finola teaches hands-on baking and kitchen skills to children,” says Lucy.

She learned a lot from her granny, her mother, and from Finola ,culminating in a place in the grand final of the Junior Brown Bread Making competition next month

The young finalists bake on September 15 and 16 and the winner is crowned on September 17. .

Lucy was always onto a winner.

“I just love baking!” says Lucy, who has a sister, Emily.

Baking with her mum Susie at their home between Killeagh and Youghal, sifting, stirring, whipping up the butter, and the sugar, waiting for the golden mixture to rise, mother and daughter transform a bunch of sloppy ingredients into mouth-watering cupcakes, brownies and banana bread. And - shazam! It’s magic.

Lucy magically perfected her very own brown bread recipe as a youngster. She learned from the best.

“I watched my mum baking bread and scones in our kitchen as a young child,” she says.

“I learned my technique from her.”

Can she let us into some of her secrets from the master chef - and from Lucy herself, one of eight master junior bakers in the country?

“When I began baking brown bread, I put it into the oven at 160 degrees for 15 minutes,” says Lucy.

“After 15 minutes, I then take it out, cover it with tin foil, put it back in the oven at a lower temperature, 140 degrees, for 25 minutes.”

That seems like a foolproof recipe so that the bread is not hard and too crusty on the outside and doughy in the middle, like my brown bread?

“Yes, it works,” says Lucy. “Try that.

“And, of course, the less handling of the mixture, the better the result.”

Lucy is a dab hand at baking.

“I like baking the sweet stuff,” she says.

“I enjoy baking cookies and banana bread as well as brown bread.”

Is she a master baker like her mother and her sister?

“No!” says Lucy laughing.

“Emily is an outdoors person. She loves going out ploughing with our dad. She thinks it’s great fun!”

Does Lucy want to be a chef when she finishes her studies.

“Yes, I do want to be a chef,” says Lucy who has the important staple ingredient of passion for fulfil her culinary ambition.

Her present ambition is to support her school, Pobalscoil na Trionóide Youghal.

“The winner of the Junior Brown Bread Baking Competition wins a €1,500 voucher for their school, and a €1,500 voucher for themselves,” says Kate.

What will Lucy do with €1,500 should she win the brown bread baking competition?

“I’ll buy myself a new Kenwood mixer!” she says.

The teenager continues to practice her passion.

“I help Finola out at summer camps and at various events,” says Lucy.

Susie fuels her daughter’s passion.

“We were so delighted when we got the news on Lucy’s birthday, that she had made the final,” says Susie.

It was sweet sixteen.

“It was a wonderful surprise on her birthday,” says Susie.

“Lucy has been practising making her brown bread ever since! She has taken over the kitchen!”

Susie is proud of her protégé.

“Lucy keeps us busy! She is amazing.”

Lucy is well up for feeding other people as well.

“Make sure you call back for a cuppa and a warm slice of brown bread after we come back from Tullamore,” she says.

She doesn’t have to try and tempt me.