Erin Tulloch learned how to bake before she could read.
Baking is how her mother taught her to do both simultaneously – by purchasing boxes of cake mixes and helping her daughter sound out the words to the next step of the baking process.
Not a baker herself, however, her mother was instrumental in Tulloch following her dream – landing a spot on CTV’s upcoming holiday special Cross Country Cake Off.
Tulloch was 28 years old when she left her day job in the non-profit industry to bake full-time. She had already started her own business called Kanaka Kitchen more as a creative outlet, than a business.
“I was just not loving my career at that point,” she explained, after 12 years with the same organization. “All I could think about was baking.”
She started by putting out recipes for people and doing little how-to videos online. However, it came to a point where she had to make more money in order to be able to keep her studio.
So Tulloch started selling her creations. And, she said, the community really resonated with the pieces she was putting out.
Tulloch was approached by the producers of Cross Country Cake Off around the beginning of June. They had seen she had applied for other baking shows and thought she would be a good fit for this show.
She had to fill out an application explaining why she loves cakes and her experience.
A couple of weeks later she had an interview with producers online and then she was asked to be on the show.
The 35-year-old loves the art of baking and how she can play around with different styles, depending on how she is feeling.
“My designs can be soft and whimsical or powerful and edgy. My pieces always have their own story,” she said, adding that she also loves collaborating with her clients.
“I have the best job,” she exclaimed. “I’m a part of everybody’s celebrations.”
“And there’s something just so touching about that,” Tulloch said.
Tulloch was amazed at how many people are involved in the creation of a television production. There are dozens of people behind the cameras, she noted, and the unique ways they move the cameras to pick up images of her were very interesting.
The local baker was also able to come away from the experience with new tips and tricks she picked up from her fellow peers on the show. Like the use of gum paste and how it was used for moulds or how another contestant was using corn starch instead of icing sugar.
READ ALSO: B.C. woman bakes works of art, hopes to create a new industry
As part of the application process, Tulloch also submitted an Alice In Wonderland-inspired cake – with a teapot made out of Rice Krispies Squares, covered in fondant with flowers attached to it from Maple Ridge Florist and a quote that was done as an edible image that read, “I’m not strange, weird, off nor crazy. My reality is just different from yours.”
At that time, the quote resonated with Tulloch, and she feels that cake was her most powerful piece to date.
The biggest cake Tulloch ever made was for an old high school friend, whom she hadn’t seen in about a decade, who called her up and asked her to make a cake that represented all of the holidays, because she wanted to make up for lost time with her friends whom she didn’t get to celebrate with during the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
Tulloch baked a three-tiered cake with Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter on it.
“It was such a bizarre concept that she wanted me to recreate,” laughed Tulloch.
And to make a tricky task even more challenging, her friend was holding her celebration during the heat wave in 2021 when temperatures reached 40 C.
Then her friend picked up the cake driving a Fiat.
RELATED: Abbotsford’s Gurleen Maan looking for love on new unscripted Farming for Love series
“And this cake barely fit in the car,” she chuckled.
Tulloch said passion inspires her – passion she gets from imagery, a person, a daydream. Martha Stewart was always one of Tulloch’s favourites.
“Us bakers kind of all have that in common, where we pull long hours, we survive off sugar. At the end of the day, it’s only about getting the project done and being happy and proud of that project,” she said.
Cross Country Cake Off is a search for the country’s most gifted cake maker, led by cookbook author and multiple-Canadian Screen Award winner, Mary Berg, along with celebrated pastry chef, Andrew Han.
The special four-episode holiday season special showcases some of Canada’s best cake makers, beginning with “Cake Time”, when eight cake makers present their homemade cakes to the judges at each of the three regional qualifier locations representing: Western Canada in Vancouver; mid-Canada in Toronto; and Eastern Canada in Halifax.
Four individuals from each location are selected to move on to “Bake Time” in the Cross Country Cake Off kitchen where the bakers will take on a timed cake challenge presented by the judges.
After tasting and critiquing the cake creations, the hosts of the show will determine two cake maker finalists per region to face off in the national finale in the hopes of being crowned Cross Country champion and winning the $50,000 prize.
Cross Country Cake Off airs Thursday, Dec. 15 and Friday, Dec. 16, and then Monday, Dec. 19 and Tuesday, Dec. 20, at 9 p.m. on CTV, CTV.ca, or on the CTV app.
Have a story tip? Email: cflanagan@mapleridgenews.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
