If you’d like to learn the secrets of patisserie, there is no sweeter dream than a day spent with pastry chef Sasha Jenner at Hobbs House Cookery School. Choux buns, delicate fruit tarts and pastels del nata are delicacies which I had always associated with only the very fanciest of professional kitchens. Sasha taught me how to make all of these, and more.

Situated in a beautiful house above the bakery, the cookery school is calm, elegant and welcoming. There is a light, well-equipped kitchen, with an enviable collection of shiny Kitchenaid mixers and a friendly ‘Kitchen Fairy’, who spirits away the washing up and rustles up endless pots of coffee, and a delicious lunch.

Through a mixture of demonstrations and hands-on experience, we discovered how to make perfect pastry and how to conquer custard. Before long, with Sasha’s encouraging guidance, we were filling our choux buns with creme patisserie, and piping chocolate swirls onto glossy salted caramel tarts.

At the end of the day, I came away with a sheaf of recipes and a box of delectable patisserie made by my own fair hands. I left on an absolute high (and not just because of the inevitable sugar rush), vowing to return for one of their Christmas baking courses. In the meantime though, I might have to get my Hobbs fix by ordering their delicious cakes online!

Images by Laura Pashby