Freya Cox': ‘I love Yorkshire – the countryside, the beach – a part of me will always be here’
Walking into Freya Cox's kitchen, it's clear to see she loves to live a life full of colour. Even though her parents’ kitchen is a classic shaker style of country white units, the pops of colour are most definitely Freya. Opening the door in a lilac sweater vest with matching swirly trousers and a beaming smile she leads us towards the back of the house where the kitchen is bathed in light overlooking the beautiful garden. Her retro pink Kitchen Aid mixer stands proudly on the worktop next to a jar of strawberry bonbons, while overhead hang brightly coloured paper decorations and a dream catcher.
‘Obviously, this is my mum and dad's kitchen’ explains Freya. ‘It's amazing - they have the nicest house ever, but I think I could bake anywhere.’ Which comes in handy as Freya is never in one place for too long, splitting her time between Liverpool and her hometown just outside of Scarborough. ‘I love Yorkshire – the countryside, the beach – a part of me will always be here’ but since Bake Off Freya has been spending a lot of her time with friends in Liverpool, including fellow baking star Lizzie Acker.
In fact, it’s the people of Bake Off that were her favourite part of the whole experience - ‘I met such amazing people and learnt so much from them. I’ve made so many friends and we do loads together – it was just the best experience of my life’. Since then, Freya has been busy travelling the country, doing guest appearances at food festivals, while still making time to bake her favourite vegan chocolate treats. There’s been one thing in particular, however, which has been taking up most of Freya’s time – her new cookbook. Simply Vegan Baking: Taking the faff out of vegan cakes, cookies, breads and desserts by Freya Cox will be published on September 29 and features a beautiful, retro design full of bright colours and delicious vegan bakes. As she talks us through it, it’s clear to see this is Freya’s proudest achievement and something tells us there’s a lot more to come from this vegan baking superstar.
Just love Nigella, she's one of those timeless people - she's just done so much for food. The sticky toffee pudding recipe in my book is majorly inspired by one of hers.
Obsessed with the colour! A stand mixer is a major help when you're churning out a lot of cakes!
He's my little baking companion. He doesn't get involved but loves to lay by the oven when it's on.
This is the cake they make you when you leave the show and they let you take it home. I just love that they put so much thought into it and featured my favourite bakes. I always piped flowers so they added those on, too.
This is my all-time favourite sweet! And anything that's pink I'm all for.
I got this when I was practising to go on Bake Off and to this day it's the best thing I've ever bought. It makes decorating so much easier - I even took it into the tent with me.
This is a vital vegan ingredient - soya milk with a good apple cider vinegar is the key to all great cakes.
8. My new cookbook
This is my first ever cookbook and I'm just so proud of this as I worked so hard on it. I love the design and all the recipes, now I can't wait to write another!
Don't know how anyone survives without a spatula! And a balloon whisk I always use with cake mix so it doesn't overdo it.
Piping is my favourite thing to do - love decorating and being creative. I just have every single one you could possibly need, although there's always room for more.
