Pastry chef Caitlin Smith loves being in the business of baking.

When she isn’t busy with her two-year-old son Alex, she is in the kitchen, producing a selection of treats which she takes to the Ōamaru Farmers Market, and sells at her stall as The Sweet Smith.

Since training as a pastry chef seven years ago, having her own “little business” has been the dream.

“It's as hard as it sounds, but I love it, and you know, I think that's really important.”

When deciding on a career after she left school, it was a toss up between writing and baking. She knew baking meant early starts, so journalism won out, and after studying, she got a reporting job with TV3.

“Then I ended up doing shift work and had to get up early anyway, and put makeup on. So, you know, it kind of backfired. 

“It was a bad time. I got a bit of a bad start to that environment, but I kind of knew. I looked around and I didn't love it as much as everyone else.

She went overseas and had “an existential crisis”. 

“I was like, what am I doing?” 

She decided she wanted to be a baker, found a two-year diploma at Auckland University of Technology, and says it’s the best thing she ever did.

Donuts are always popular with The Sweet Smith customers, at Ōamaru Farmers' Market every Sunday morning. Photos: Supplied

“I'm really glad I went down that route, because it's hard, and it's a very overworked, underpaid industry, but so is journalism.”

She graduated in 2018 and, with her husband Sye Johnson, they decided to leave the city they both grew up in, and move south.

The couple spent a year in Wānaka, where Caitlin worked at the award-winning Pembroke Patisserie, in Albert Town.

“I really enjoyed working there. That was the downside of leaving Wānaka, unfortunately.”

Aside from Caitlin’s job, the couple did not have a great experience in Wānaka, and at the start of 2020 moved to Ōamaru. Sye began teaching at St Kevin’s College just before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

“I’m glad we’re here. Obviously, that was a bad year. If we were in Wanaka . . . we probably would have gone home to Auckland.”

Covid also put the brakes on Caitlin’s business plans, and The Sweet Smith didn’t really get off the ground until 2021.

“I think that is when I decided, right, let's do it. And yeah, I’ve kind of been operating on and off since then.”

Pregnancy with a healthy dollop of bad morning sickness on the side, made being in the kitchen less appealing for Caitlin, and she took a break until Alex was a bit older.

The Sweet Smith has been officially up and running again since February last year. 

The selection Caitlin offers at the market varies each week, but there are donuts and always an array of slices, cakes and tarts.

Also, this winter, for the first time in four years, there was a canteen at the North Otago Netball Saturday competitions, with Caitlin taking charge.

She experimented with selling a few basic things, along with her handmade donuts and other baked goods.

“It was great. And everyone was really happy to see it . . . I'll be doing it again next year hopefully, if they'll have me.”

She also supplies Pottery Patch, the ceramic-painting cafe in the former Midori restaurant building on Ribble Street.

Caitlin loves the intricacies involved in what she does. 

“I've always been very detail-orientated and I think that's what I love about baking, is that you can have your little recipe in front of you, and if you do it right and you know what to do, it comes out beautiful every time.”

For her, it is equally important the food looks good, as well as tasting amazing.

“You really have to have an eye for detail . . . you’ve got to look at how things look, and it's very much, people eat with their eyes. So if things don't look edible, you don't want to buy it.”

Next year Alex turns three, and will be in care three days a week, which means Caitlin can take more orders and look at expanding the business.

“I had a high tea order for a little girl's birthday this year, which was kind of an experiment because I love doing high tea, and it worked out really well, they were really happy,” she says. 

“I've always wanted to do more pastry items and more like high-end kind-of things but that requires a premises and chilled cabinet and all that kind of stuff. So one day.”

She also has a friend in Waimate who she worked with in Auckland, and is hopeful eventually they will be able to run a business together - each working to their different strengths.

“She's like the cake queen, she does all the fondant work and things like that. So she does the things I don't really like doing, and then I like to do the pastries and things like that.”

Outside of baking, Caitlin enjoys other creative outlets such as embroidery, and has involved herself in the community as part of the North Otago Toy Library committee and the Good Bitches Baking group, which now has more than 20 bakers.  

“I definitely keep busy, but that's what I do. I've always been like that.”

A wedding cake that Caitlin baked, and her Waimate-based friend decorated. Photo: Supplied