How I went from a journalist to blogging about reading and baking

Like so many thousands of people worldwide, my life was completely changed by the outbreak of Covid-19. At the beginning of 2020, I was the lifestyle editor and specialist food writer of one of the biggest newspapers in South Africa. I spent my days reading and writing about food (especially yummy baking recipes), interesting people and places, and putting together the lifestyle pages in the Saturday newspaper.

In March I went on maternity leave and my second child was born on the first Monday of lockdown, 30 March. In July, while still on maternity leave, I heard that my department at work will be restructured. After much agonizing and soul-searching, I decided to take a voluntary severance package. And so, 13 years at Beeld came to an end. I felt like I’d lost a limb.

Time to get reading and baking!

But then I decided that this is an ideal time to start living out my passions, and focussing on two of my biggest loves: reading and baking. Reading is one of my greatest pleasures, I love escaping into a good book whenever I have the chance (and with two little ones, I really have to MAKE time to read!).

Until they invent time-travel (which I hope will still be in my lifetime), the next best thing is reading. I can open one book and be in 18^th century England, and the next one takes me to the mean streets of modern-day New York, or the grim horrors of Auschwitz…

My other great passion is baking. I love creating something delicious from basic ingredients like flour, butter (always butter, not margarine!) and sugar. When I’m in my kitchen creating something delicious for the people I love, I’m truly in my happy place. Some of my favorite things to bake include ginger biscuits, chocolate chunk cookies, fudge, pies, cupcakes…

Food and book pairing

So, in October when I was ‘unemployed’ for the first time in 13 years, the idea for this blog was born out of my two loves: reading and baking. Because I’m such a foodie, I’m very in tune with mentions of food in novels. And no, I don’t just read books like Eat, Pray, Love where food is an integral part of the plot. ANY book can inspire a dish, even a detective novel! I always feel like big cups of tea and shortbread when I read PD James’ Adam Dalgliesh novels…

What can you expect from The Bookworm Bakes? Well, I call it: food and book pairing.  Every post will include a short book review, and a recipe inspired by the book (it might be for an actual dish mentioned in the book, or food I feel like eating while reading that particular book, or something inspired by the plot or a character in the book). I will write about contemporary books by authors like Lucinda Riley, Kate Morton, John Grisham, and Ken Follett. And classics by the greats like Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, the Brontë sisters, Winston Graham, James Herriot, and many more.

I hope you like what you read here, so please come back for more! My first book review and recipe pairing will be up soon. Thanks for reading!

Karla Janse van Vuuren