AD - Baking At Home with Lemon & Bark

AD – This is part of a paid partnership with Lemon & Bark

Who loves the smell of freshly baked sweet treats? I know I do!

Have you ever fancied baking something at home, but it’s a big fuss to gather all the ingredients and sometimes, it can just be one big faff? I don’t know about you, but having a full-time job and managing this blog, it doesn’t leave me too much time in the kitchen.

And sometimes it can be hard to figure out WHAT to bake and what ingredients you need.

Well, I may have a solution for you!

I’m so excited to be sharing and working with such a fab small business which I think you’re going to love – especially if you love home baking and all things sweet! I truly believe baking is a form of therapy and a way to switch off, even during my busy life, so it’s lovely to see a small business have the same ethos!

About Lemon & Bark

I’d like to introduce you to Lemon & Bark who are a small business based in Oxfordshire who provide Bake at Home kits, baking accessories and even tea and coffee to go with your bakes – their name is based on their favourite ingredient: Lemons! Whether it be in cake or a G&T, I think it’s a solid name which matches their brand and values.

The business is founded and managed by Director, Iona Palmer who always knew she wanted a career that aligned with her real passions, baking and helping others. After suffering with acute bout of anxiety, her kitchen was no longer just her passion but her lifeline.

Fast forward to January 2020, Iona needed and wanted to do more with her life and was determined to create a career that she loved. After meeting with a best friend, an entrepreneur over lots of cups of coffee, they made a business plan and decided to share an office space together.

And that’s where Lemon & Bark was born.

I love small business stories like this and Iona proves that you can put your mind to anything if you work hard and have the determination to change your life.

Lemon & Bark is not just another small business, they believe they are here to help anyone that needs it – as their main passion is baking, their Bake at Home kits are a way of encouraging others to get in their kitchen.

All their recipes have been tried and tested and are real home baked staples which every household can get behind and love.

They want to ensure their Bake at Home kits are convenient and have created them to provide every customer with the exact quantity of dry ingredients needed for each bake – making it easy and time efficient to give you time out to breathe from your busy lives.

There are 6 different recipes to choose for their Bake at Home Kits and I actually found it pretty difficult to decide which one to bake as I would easily enjoy all of them!

However, in the end I decided to go for their Biscoff Banana Bread recipe because, of course, Biscoff is the best flavour EVER! So I couldn’t wait to taste what it would be like in a banana bread and was curious over how easy it would be to create this.

Our experience

The packages came small in size, which was really convenient and came neatly packaged with their branding label wrapped around the boxes.

Inside, you have all your dry ingredients already measured out, along with Lemon & Bark printed greaseproof paper and a bamboo skewer to test how cooked it is.

All the dry ingredients came in reusable paper ziplock bags, which was really nice to see a small business trying their best to be as sustainable and environmentally friendly as possible – plus it kept everything fresh as we used the kit a few days after receiving it.

The only thing we needed to provide was the baking tray and 3 ripe bananas. It really is handy that you have everything here making the process super easy.

You are also given an instruction card, which contains the ingredients and their measurements, plus the method on how you make your Biscoff Banana Bread. It was really straight forward to read and I never felt stuck on what to do.

What was lovely about the instruction card was that it didn’t just include the method, but it was written so beautifully like a story; I especially loved the part where Iona shares that she makes herself a tea and coffee whilst she waits for her Banana Bread to cook so she could enjoy the freshly baked smells coming from her kitchen.

It influenced me to do the same and I thought it was a really nice touch.

The preparation was really easy, simply put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix around, which meant less mess too – it took literally 5 minutes to make the mixture, followed by another 20-25 minutes of baking time.

And ta-da! It came out perfectly, which I was surprised at, not because I had any doubt in Lemon & Bark’s home baking kits, but more my own ability to bake it well and make it look good – it just shows with these kits that you don’t have to be a pro to make it well!

The verdict?

Once we let the Banana Bread cool, Iona suggests that you microwave the rest of your Biscoff spread and drizzle it on top and oh my word – it’s so satisfying to watch and even more satisfying when you take a bite!

As I mentioned, all the prep and cooking was really time efficient so I didn’t feel stressed or like I was waiting for a long time; once cooled, we enjoyed our Biscoff Banana Bread with a cup of tea on our sofa whilst the rain poured down on a Sunday afternoon – absolute bliss!

I would highly recommend checking Lemon & Bark’s Bake at Home kits, whether you’re looking to bruce up on your baking skills, you have friends and family coming over and want to impress, or perhaps it would make a nice gift along with some baking accessories for a loved one.