Baking Academy of Ireland

The Baking Academy of Ireland is dedicated to the art and craft of bread baking, cake baking, chocolate making and sugar craft decoration

Derek O’Brien is a legend among bakers. In recognition of this fact, last year he received a Lifetime Achievement Award for the prestigious Irish Food Writer’s Guild, an award which, due to his personal modesty, took him completely by surprise. It is this modesty in part, as well as his focus and determination which contribute to him being the superb baker he is.

His destiny seemed clear from an early age, when as a young man; he took up a four year apprenticeship with a master baker. After qualifying he headed to England where Mark’s and Spencer’s sponsored a diploma in baking technology at the South Bank University. A spell in Germany exploded his passion for bread making and many years of highly respected teaching and course design and management at The Dublin Institute of Technology followed. Even after retiring Derek couldn’t put his love of baking aside and so The Baking Academy was born.

Quality and Natural are Derek’s self-proclaimed watchwords but add to that passion, commitment, technique and perfection and we can get closer to the truth.
The Baking Academy is a hive of activity when we visit the Introduction to Sugar Craft course one sunny Saturday morning. The space is bright and inviting with every student in charge of their own gleaming station…each drawer underneath the pristine benches piled high with exciting baking implements and equipment. There are twelve excited students eagerly taking in the information that Derek’s years of experience has imparted. Each ingredient is sourced impeccably. Derek will not use commercially produced marzipan (which he says is too high in sugar and contains artificially produced ingredients) but opts instead for real almond paste which he sources from Harrods! (In fact, he is right to be so fastidious and his German training stands to him as the Germans actually have a law governing the quantities and ratio of ground almonds to sugar/syrup!). That’s not where the attention to provenance ends. For much of the cake making, Derek sources soft cheese and other dairy from Kilbeg Dairies in Kells…they even produce a ‘quark’ for him, a type of German curd cheese made from soured milk and present in many of Germany’s finest cakes!

 The courses are fantastic. There are cake baking courses, bread baking, sugar craft, simple cake decorating and a handmade chocolate course…there is even a diploma in German baking. Derek invites world class guest lecturers to take modules of some of the chocolate courses and students get to experience international styles of cake and bread making, from ‘party brot’ to granary breads, from ‘slow’ and ‘fast’ breads to sodas and sourdoughs, from basic Madeira skills to wedding and party cakes. Part of the fun is hearing Derek’s stories and tips but at the heart of the academy is serious training, terminology and a little of the science crucial to the processes of baking. Students learn how to ‘knock back’ and how to ‘hand up’ and end up with a real grounding in the important business of natural fermentation and dough development. Alongside this, there are fun-filled but practical courses named accordingly…Charmingly Cheeky Cupcakes, Wonderful Wedding Cakes, Tantalising Tarts, Precocious Pies, Superb Sugar Flowers and lots more.

Derek O’Brien is a master baker, a master teacher and a master of charm and tales. His Palmerstown Baking Academy is a light and fun filled space with all the serious learning of an institute of science but with much more joy and a whole heap of passion.

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Contact Details

To Contact a Member Directly, please click on the email or website below

Lucan Road Old
Palmerstown Village
Dublin 20
+353 (0) 1 8451214
Email: bakingacademyireland@gmail.com
Web: www.bakingacademyireland.ie

 

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