My story

The seeds for my love of baking (and eating!) delicious, home-made cakes were planted in my Mum’s kitchen, while growing up in the countryside in Southern Germany, surrounded by a rich family tradition of home-baking.  No family gathering was complete without afternoon ‘Kaffee und Kuchen’, at its centre a festively decorated table laden with the most wonderful cakes, contributed to by everyone invited.

After graduating with a degree in nutritional sciences, and postgraduate and postdoctoral studies in the UK and Switzerland, I moved to Australia in 2000 to take up an academic research position in Adelaide.  Despite a demanding career, cake baking remained a favourite pastime.

In 2002, my husband, Tom, and I bought a beautiful property in Uraidla, in the Adelaide Hills, where we started growing our own produce, including some of the fruit and nuts for my cakes.  We discovered the local markets and, before long, set up stalls at the Uraidla and Stirling Markets to offer my cakes to a wider clientele.  ‘Christine’s cakes’ was born!

By around 2015, the business had turned into a whole-of-family affair, with Tom baking his sought-after rustic sourdough breads and our then 10-year old daughter, Emily, offering her tasty cookie creations, prompting the rebranding to ‘The Little Uraidla Bakehouse’. At around that time, we bade farewell to the local markets, and continued to bake to order instead, home-delivering our freshly baked cakes and breads around the district on Saturday mornings.

Turning yet another page, since 2022, I have been sharing my love of baking and being creative (combined with my passion for teaching) by offering carefully tailored, small-group baking classes in our home kitchen. - I invite you to join me at one of my ‘Adelaide Hills Baking Classes’.