A New LifeTurning a passion for baking cakes into a thriving business has been worth every crumb of effort, Jean Domican tells Michelle McDonagh
Slaving over a hot stove by night and in a busy coffee shop by day might be the epitome of the job from hell for most people, but Jean Domican is thriving on the hectic routine of her new career.
Although the Dublin native has loved baking and collecting traditional recipes all her life, it wasn't until she moved to West Cork six years ago that she decided to make a career out of her past-time.
"I bake the kind of cakes that people remember from years ago, like the old Teatime Express cakes we used to get when we were kids, such as coffee and walnut and chocolate cakes. I found some great recipes for these kinds of cakes and they're so popular," she says.
Domican recalls the excitement as a child of going to Teatime Express in Dublin or to the Brown Thomas food hall to buy a cake for a special occasion.
"I always remember the cake coming in boxes tied with twine and the whole palaver around it.
"My mother and grandmother were very good bakers, but there was great excitement around buying a cake."
After leaving school, Domican had a variety of jobs, from working in clothing boutiques to teaching "bored adults" to paint. She then lived in England for a number of years, where she became involved in setting up after-school clubs.
When she moved home and settled in Wexford 13 years ago, she started working as a self-employed facilitator/trainer and did a lot of work for Fás with the long-term unemployed on community employment schemes.
She also worked with companies such as Eircom and ICI and was involved in Mary Harney's under-21 task force to get young people off the live register.
Having lived in Midleton, Co Cork for a short while, Domican and her husband, David, fell in love with the county and vowed to live there eventually. They finally had a chance to move back in 2001, with their children, Sorcha and Ruairí.
David, a furniture designer, set about doing up the house they had bought near Ballyvourney, in West Cork, while Domican was kept busy with her training work.
Both of the children went to small, local all-Irish schools and now speak the language fluently.
A year after they moved to Cork, Domican started baking her old-style cakes at home and selling them to a local farmers' market. Her little business took off very quickly and she soon found herself baking for four markets every week.
Her husband helped with packaging the cakes and eventually, he even took over selling at the markets as well, as Domican was finding herself up all night baking.
"I was literally baking from a Rayburn and a small electric oven my son bought me one Christmas. It was chaos. The kitchen table was always stacked high with cakes. I couldn't have people just walking into the kitchen and meal times were very difficult too," she explains.
In 2005, Domican decided to do the Diploma in Speciality Food Production at UCC, and this course gave her the confidence to sell her produce further afield in places such as the Farmleigh Market in Dublin, Temple Bar Market and at Bord Bia events around the country.
She says: "When I started the course, I used to say 'I just bake cakes', and would almost apologise for what I did.
"By the end of the course, I was saying 'I bake cakes and I bake them well'. It gave me the confidence to be proud of what I did."
Domican continued selling at the farmers' markets after finishing the course at UCC and, in March of this year, she fulfilled her dream of opening her own bakery and coffee shop called Buns 'n' Stuff, at Main Street, Macroom, Co Cork.
She starts baking every day at 5am and works in the shop all day, making up fresh sandwiches from local produce, while David works in the bakery. On Thursdays and Fridays, she often works right through the night baking for the busy Saturday trade and she still works most of the next day in the shop.
"I have no problem with the long hours and lack of sleep. I do get tired sometimes, but the adrenalin keeps me going.
"When I was training, I generally worked a nine-to-five day, but there was a lot of travel involved, so I often had to set out early. The biggest difference with this job is that I am never really finished, even on Sundays - my day off - I am usually in, doing bits and pieces."
Domican firmly believes there is a place in every small town in Ireland for a old-style bakery, where people can buy fresh cakes and bread every day. She is delighted to be preserving recipes that have been handed down through families for generations.
She is also very strong on supporting local food producers and she tries to buy directly from the producer where she can, to give them a better price for their goods.
"I have to say, I really love what I'm doing now. I don't believe you could do it if you didn't love it. I couldn't go back to my previous life.
"There is nothing as good as baking something, selling it directly to my customers and getting direct feedback that it's just like they remember their grandmothers or mothers making it. It's pretty hard to beat that feeling." There is nothing as good as baking something... and getting feedback that it's just like they remember their grandmothers or mothers making it