LAC LA BICHE - It’s a sweet kind of life for Lac La Biche County baker Ashley Hill.
Her colourful and delicious cookies, cheesecakes, cakes, and cupcakes can be found on display at the weekly Lac La Biche Farmer’s Market, as well as at a few other local special markets during the year.
Hill uses recipes that have been given to her by friends and family, recipes that she has tweaked into her own unique process for making these delectable baked goods inside of her home kitchen. Her home serves as the base of operations for her company, Krarups Kitchen.
Out of all her products, she enjoys baking cheesecake the most.
Using a home oven, hand-mixer, mixing bowls and spatulas, the local entrepreneur fashions her delicious sweets from the ground up. She devotes roughly 10-15 hours out of her busy week to baking goodies for the market and for home.
“I make everything from scratch, down to even my own brown sugar,” she told Lakeland This Week.
While Hill has mastered the art of baking and decorating her scrumptious creations, she says, it can be a considerable challenge. She didn't take formal training to master her skills, it's all been trial, and trial, and trial, and the occasional error, she said with a laugh.
Inspired by family and friends, who gave her baking rave reviews, Hill took it upon herself to open a small business to help pay the bills. She lives on an acreage between Lac La Biche and Plamondon with her husband and three kids.
Before she began selling her products at local farmers markets in 2020, Hill only made desserts upon request and never charged for them. Her love of baking was fostered through working alongside her mom and grandmother in the kitchen. She has fond memories of Christmases past spending days making shortbread for all of her friends and family.
“Making good food has always made me happy…and it's incredibly magical to start with bowls of basically nothing and end up with something delicious that I can share with my community.”
Since setting out on this sweet journey, Hill has had some interesting experiences along the way. She shared a story whereby she was making special order of chocolate chip cookies for a client. Just as the last batch came out of the even, her son used his finger to poke every single melted chocolate chip.
“I had to redo the entire order,” she explained, recalling the chocolatey mishap. "... but the family had some extra cookies for the week.”
"Side-hustle" ... for now
For the time being, Krarups Kitchen is a side hustle to supplement her job as server at Boston Pizza. However, Hill remains hopeful that one day, her dream of working as a full-time baker will come to fruition.
Her family, she says, has been very supportive of her dream. She added that her husband has assisted her with the baking, preparation, and grocery shopping for supplies and has also stayed up all night when she was running behind.
“He is my rock, and I couldn't do this without him,” she said. “My oldest has always loved helping me in the kitchen, and he also helps me at the market on Fridays.”
Hill's most recent batch of sweet offerings was up for sale at the final Lac La Biche Farmers Markets of the season on December 15. The weekly markets return to the Lac La Biche Agricom next spring.
