If raising the profile of the local baker and highlighting the crucial role of bakers in the community was the aim of the inaugural National Craft Bakers’ Week, then we have to say, ’mission accomplished’!

Bakers up and down the land got involved in the profile-raising fun, either through special promotions, such as Warings in Reading offering a free bread giveaway, or by showing the next generation of fledging would-be bakers why baking is a viable career.

Mathiesons invited a class of 26 primary schoolchildren to its bakery in Larbert, to learn how to make strawberry tarts, have a tea party and, hopefully, be inspired to become future bakers. Similarly, Chatwins, Stuarts of Buckhaven and Hursts (all pictured) gave classes to kids. Now let’s make National Craft Bakers’ Week even bigger in 2010!