It might be surprising for someone who made it to the final of The Great British Bake Off, but Kim-Joy says she tries “to not be a perfectionist”.
She won over fans for her cute animal-inspired bakes on the show back in 2018, making the final alongside Ruby Bhogal and eventual winner Rahul Mandal.
“I try to not be a perfectionist – a lot of people tell me, ‘You’re a perfectionist!’ It’s a compliment, and it’s all meaning well because they mean you’re paying attention to details, which is a good thing.
“But I see paying attention to details as a different thing to being a perfectionist… Being a perfectionist is inside of you, where nothing’s ever good enough and you’re constantly critical of what you do.”
That’s why Leeds-based Kim-Joy, 33, tries not to strive for absolute perfection – as she knows that can often lead to you feeling “bad about yourself” if you bake something that’s not up to scratch.
“Even if you create something that is 99 to 100% perfect, you’re like, ‘Well, I have to keep doing that – or do better next time’,” she says, as your driving force can then become “negative” thoughts.
So that’s why Kim-Joy tries to rid herself of expectations when baking, saying it allows her to be “fully creative, like a child”.
If it sounds like Kim-Joy knows her stuff about psychology, that’s bang on – before Bake Off, she was a psychological wellbeing practitioner, and she even has a masters in psychology. All of these she applies to her new world of baking – and you’d be surprised how well the two go together.
“A lot of my interest in baking isn’t just purely the baking, a lot of it is about… helping my own mental health, and hopefully other people’s mental health – I feel like that informs everything I do,” Kim-Joy explains.
At the end of 2021, Kim-Joy shared a candid post on Instagram about her mental health, alongside a picture of the antidepressant she takes every day.
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“I’ve been on various different antidepressants since I was a teenager, but it’s only since about a year ago that I started sharing with a few people about being on antidepressants. Even when friends would talk to me about they themselves taking it, I still wouldn’t share that I took it,” she wrote.
“I had a traumatic and chaotic childhood with close family having very severe mental illness, so I’ve always felt like I need to be the adult and that means I need to appear ‘strong’ so that I’m there for others, even when I feel scared.”
Casting her mind back to publishing that post, she says she wanted to “push myself” to be vulnerable, adding: “I really think one of the most therapeutic things is hearing other people’s stories and not feeling alone. When I hear other people’s story and I connect with that, I want to do the same. Vulnerability is strength.”
Kim-Joy says that how she expresses herself “tends to not be through talking, but through creative pursuits” – like baking. This is particularly seen in her fifth cookbook, Bake Joy, which is all about how baking can help you reconnect with your inner child.
In true Kim-Joy style, most of the bakes have a “little face on it” – think meringues with googly eyes and a pound cake that looks like a dog – or “a little twist”, like the thumbprint cookies that look like a magic forest.
“I get a lot of inspiration from kids… They’ve got freedom and creativity, and think of things slightly differently sometimes,” Kim-Joy says.
So baking is a way to “get back that joy you have when you’re a child” – and you certainly don’t have to worry if anything goes wrong with the recipes.
“It doesn’t matter, because it’s still going to taste good – even if it’s not perfect,” she adds. Baking might have “science to it”, there’s “also a bit of chaos to it”.
So if you embrace the chaos, you can see things going wrong as an opportunity: “If your chocolate cake falls apart, you can utilise that and create something different” – like her cake which is decorated with chocolate ganache and marshmallow pigs, who look like they’re eating chunks out of the sponge.
A good recipe to start with are her frog scones, which Kim-Joy describes as “a nice bit of chaos”. The way the scones cook mean they’ll inevitably end up slightly mismatched and leaning to different sides, “So they all come out different – it’s really hard to go wrong with scones”.
Ultimately, the best thing to do is find a recipe you want to eat – whether that’s custard tart, lemon meringue pie, sprinkle sponge – anything. One thing you won’t find in the book are bananas, which Kim-Joy isn’t really a fan of (“so I’d never make anything like a banana sponge”).
Baking really is as simple as this: “You want to eat something tasty” – and go from there.
Bake Joy: Easy And Imaginative Bakes To Bring You Happiness by Kim-Joy is published by Quadrille on August 29, priced £16.99. Photography by Ellis Parrinder
Kim-Joy’s magic forest thumbprint cookie recipe
These quick and easy cookies can be made vegan and gluten-free as desired.
If you wanted to get a peep into baker Kim-Joy’s brain, just take a look at the inspiration behind this recipe.
“Imagine you’re strolling through a magical forest and there are mushrooms at your feet, frogs hopping up around your ankles and bumblebees peacefully buzzing in the air,” she says.
“You reach the forest kitchen, and you decide to make some quick and buttery thumbprint cookies based on what you’ve seen.”
Kim Joy's Magic forest thumbprint cookies
Ingredients:
(Makes 16)
200g salted butter (or use 80%-fat vegan butter), softened at room temperature, cubed
90g caster or granulated sugar
½tsp freshly ground cardamom (increase to 1tsp if using pre-ground cardamom as the flavour isn’t as strong) (you can also omit this if you prefer)
1tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
280g plain flour (or use a gluten-free flour blend plus ¾tsp xanthan gum)
100g of your favourite jam (use apricot or sweet marmalade for the bees; any red-coloured jam, such as strawberry or raspberry, for the mushrooms; add green food dye to apricot jam or sweet marmalade for the frogs)
To decorate:
Flaked almonds (or you can pipe wings on after baking using white icing)
40g icing sugar
Black food dye
Method:
1. Line a baking sheet with baking paper or a silicone mat.
2. Add the butter, sugar, ground cardamom and vanilla to a large bowl and beat together with a spoon or spatula until smooth and spreadable.
3. Add the flour (or flour plus xanthan gum) and mix until just combined. The dough should be slightly sticky, but soft and easy to handle.
4. Divide the dough into 16 roughly equal pieces, then roll each piece into a rough ball and flatten with the palm of your hand.
5. Arrange on the prepared baking sheet. If making the bumblebees, press each cookie with a finger or a measuring spoon to create roughly oval-shaped indents in the centre of each, then press on flaked almond wings, just above the indent. To make the mushrooms, press the cookies with your fingers to create the top of the mushroom, then press to create the stalk using a chopstick or similar. For the frogs, press each cookie to create a round indent, then use your fingers to press and create two smaller indents above for the eyes.
6. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes, or in the freezer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 140°C fan.
7. Using a small spoon, add a little jam/marmalade to each indent (depending on which design you are making – see photos), so that it is flush with the surrounding cookie. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until ever-so-slightly browned at the edges. Leave to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
8. Meanwhile, make the quick icing to decorate. Whisk together the icing sugar and one teaspoon water, then add black food dye to colour. Transfer to a piping bag and cut a small tip. For the bees, add half a teaspoon of the white icing to a small piping bag and cut a tiny opening on the end. Mix the remaining icing with black food dye to colour. Add three-quarters of this icing to a piping bag and cut a slightly larger opening (this piping bag is for the bee stripes). Add the remaining quarter to a third piping bag and cut a tiny opening (this is for the eyes/mouth). For the mushrooms, you only need white icing, so just put this straight into a piping bag. For the frogs, keep two-thirds of the icing white. Dye the remaining third black. Put in separate piping bags.
9. Once the cookies have cooled, you can finish decorating! Use the photos as a guide, but feel free to add your own flourishes. Store in an airtight container for one to two weeks.
Bake Joy: Easy And Imaginative Bakes To Bring You Happiness by Kim-Joy is published by Quadrille on August 29, priced £16.99. Photography by Ellis Parrinder
