'I went back to what I do: I baked' - Lorraine Aspill

Back in 1991, pastry chef Lorraine Aspill was named Ireland’s hardest worker in a competition run by the Gay Byrne radio show. At the time she was juggling a newborn baby with 2am starts in her bakery. Twenty-five years later, she’s getting a lie in at last … well, sort of.

“She’s up at half three now and everything that’s here was baked this morning,” says her partner Larry, as Lorraine excuses herself to serve a customer at Daisy Cottage Café in Tinahely, Co Wicklow, which the couple opened this summer after winning a loyal following on the farmers’ market circuit. “I don’t know how she does it.”

Indeed, Larry admits he can’t quite figure out if Lorraine even sleeps, between experimenting with the savoury bread of the day (black olive and goat’s cheese on the day of our visit) or elevating the humble scone to new heights, with combinations including pear and almond, strawberry and white chocolate, and blackcurrant with lemon.

Then there are her Blas na hÉireann medal-winning bread and scone mixes that she supplies to selected SuperValus and independent stores: the latest addition being her “bottle of bread”, a porridge bread mix free from flour, wheat, sugar or eggs.

“Just add a tub of yoghurt and a spoon of oil,” she explains to us, holding up a bottle that has been carefully decorated with rustic twine. She did it all herself with a glue gun. No wonder she hardly gets a wink. Still, it seems to be paying off in Tinahely, with customers practically lining up to tell Irish Country Living how much they enjoy their cuppa, treat and chat at Daisy Cottage.

“This is a great asset to the locality, just what we needed,” says regular Sean, who is partial to the Danish pastries.

“It’s little spots like this that the Government should be putting money into because this rejuvenates the whole street, and small country places are dying for places like this.”

Learning her trade

However, the Daisy Cottage story is as much a tale of the recession as success, launched in 2010 when both Lorraine and Larry found themselves out of work.

“It was survival,” she says simply.

Originally from Dublin, Lorraine trained in Cathal Brugha St, before moving to work in France and Switzerland, where she fell in love with pastry, despite the temperament of some of the chefs she worked under.

“They didn’t think twice about firing something at you,” she recalls. “I had copper pots thrown at me; I had baking trays full of cakes thrown at me.”

Returning to Ireland, Lorraine began baking for The Cosy Kettle in Baltinglass, which her parents had taken over. She also got married and started her family; in fact, she was still making éclairs on the day that her daughter Amy was born.

But while that work ethic saw her win the Gay Byrne show competition, it also led to repeat bouts of pleurisy, so while expecting her son, Aaron, she retrained as a home economics teacher. However, when the recession hit, the teaching hours dried up.

“So I said: ‘What will I do now?’,” recalls Lorraine.

“You came cutting grass with me,” laughs Larry.

Having both come out of previous relationships, the couple were introduced 10 years ago in the mart at Carnew, where Lorraine was helping a friend to transport weanlings. They met up again at the Ploughing, and love blossomed.

Larry, who grew up on a farm near Tullow and has a son, Martin, had been working in construction and landscape gardening before the recession struck.

The couple had just bought a house together, Amy was about to go to Poland to study veterinary and the two boys were still in school.

New beginnings

“So we had to do something,” says Lorraine of the financial pressures. “I said: ‘I’ll go back and do what I do: I’ll bake.’”

And after getting their kitchen signed off by the HSE, Lorraine and Larry headed to their first farmers’ market in Wexford.

“We started off with a jeep with about half a dozen boxes and two tables on the roof rack,” says Larry.

“I had a few brown breads, a few scones, a few apple tarts,” continues Lorraine. “And it just grew from there.”

Soon, they were rocking up to markets and food festivals from Dingle to Donegal. Larry recalls a hectic day in Bloom after Lorraine’s cheese and scallion bread featured on Nationwide.

“The next morning, I had women around me, 10 deep,” he laughs.

“And I was at home just grating cheese and my mother was just chopping scallions and scallions and scallions,” adds Lorraine.

Travelling to markets began to take a toll, however, so Lorraine and Larry decided to look for a more permanent base, experimenting first with a farm shop at their home before opening Daisy Cottage Café this summer.

“Everything is handmade, enjoyable … calorie-free!” quips Lorraine.

We’re not sure about the end of that sentence, but can certainly attest to the start, and indeed, Lorraine tries to cater for as wide an audience as possible with gluten-free options, as well as designating Friday as “diabetic friendly day”.

The couple also have their own small-holding, where they keep six Jersey cows for farm butter and milk, as well as rearing their own poultry, bacon and beef, and growing herbs for light meals and savoury snacks for the café. It’s full on – especially as Larry recently returned to construction work – but then again, Lorraine Aspill knows nothing else.

“I love what I do,” she smiles.

And it seems Tinahely does too. CL

You can find Daisy Cottage Farm at this year’s Tinahely Show on Monday 1 August in the IFA marquee.

Daisy Cottage Farm Café,

Dwyer Square, Tinahely, Co Wicklow. Open Tues-Sat, 9am-5.30pm, while groups can be accommodated on Mondays by request. Call 086-317-7146 or follow on Facebook.