When Ally Hoskins travelled from Queensland to visit a friend in Tatura for a holiday in early 2020, she never expected she’d still be here one and a half years later, running an artistic bakery from her Shepparton rental property.
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Ally comes from a creative family of painters and artists, a talent she inherited, and after more than a decade working as a qualified baker she grew tired of the sterile repetition of commercial kitchens.
“It’s all very grey and stainless, there’s no colour,” she said.
Now self-employed as the owner of Batter and Crumb, Ally specialises in designing intricate, unique cakes and cupcakes for special events, as well as teaching keen home bakers her hard-earned secrets.
The decision to open Batter and Crumb was made easier in 2016 when Ally’s late daughter, Shyna, was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect, affecting her immune system and making daycare a no-go.
“It was a way for me to be able to work from home,” she said.
Shyna lived for a year, and Ally said the 12 months she shared with her daughter were a blessing with a lasting legacy.
“She gave me this business which I love, and it was like a whole new path and it was just perfect,” she said.
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Ally started feeling “a bit of cake burnout” in February 2020, and took a trip to Tatura to visit a friend while her husband was overseas for work.
When international and state borders snapped shut, Ally couldn’t afford to pay for hotel quarantine up north, so she took shelter in Tat while her husband was locked out of the country.
But she had to find a way to earn a living.
“I was just like, ‘Okay, we'll see if anyone wants cupcakes’,” she said.
Ally created a new Facebook page for the Goulburn Valley iteration of the business she ran successfully in the Sunshine State, advertising specialty cupcakes with free delivery during lockdown.
She was overwhelmed by the number of Shepparton and Tatura families who took her up on the offer, and recruited her friend to help out.
“So that first weekend we were out from 7 am to 9.30 pm driving around and delivering orders,” she said.
“It got to a point where I actually ran out of boxes and I had to use barbecue trays to give people their cupcakes.”
Ally said Batter and Crumb “grew out of the Tatura house very, very quickly” and, deciding to stay in the region, she searched high and low for a rental property with a landlord who would allow her to operate the bakery from home.
“It's been a really crazy ride, I've never been to Shepp ever in my life before this and I'm a city girl, through and through,” she said.
Since then she’s expanded her operation to include running cake decorating classes for people of all ages and abilities, and even hosting kids’ parties.
Ally said there was a lot more to cake decorating than piping icing, with current trends including hand painting, stencilling, watercolour and gold leaf.
While beginners might master buttercream icing, advanced classes would cover elaborate techniques like using armature wire to build cake structures.
Ally said she dreamed of turning Batter and Crumb Cake Academy into a school with a curriculum and vocational qualification in cake artistry - an emerging role within the patisserie realm, distinct from baking.
