Meet the Northside Crafters: Nice Biscuits

We are happy to welcome another food stall to Northside Makers. Reading through Nice Biscuits' creations, I am looking forward to sharing her baking with my gluten free friends!

Tell us about what you sell ...
Cakes, biscuits, cereal, muffins, loaves, pies, etc. My focus is on fresh organic and local ingredients and I am fascinated by interesting combinations like chocolate and zucchini or chocolate and curry (and others that don't necessarily involve chocolate). I also venture into dietary accessibility, so I'm doing a lot of vegan and gluten-free goods. I have very recently discovered that milling my own flour is a really amazing process and the product is easier on the tummy and much more flavourful, so I'm looking at making that the standard for wheat and spelt.

What inspires you?
First and foremost, the farmers' markets. I have some of my best ideas there, just based on what's before me. I'm also frequently amazed by Helen Addison-Smith, who runs Each Peach where I've had my first foray into 'professional' baking. Bloggers who I'm crushing on at the moment include Coconut and Quinoa, Sprouted Kitchen, 101 Cookbooks, and the one I can't believe I lived without for so long - Food Blog Search.

What's your favourite medium to work in?
Freshly-milled organic spelt flour and Tatura butter. I'm also really excited about coconut flour but it's rather fussy so my success rate is not so high. And sorghum flour. I have expensive taste in flour.

What would you be lost without ....
My computer. Life halts without it. It enables pretty much everything else I do.

What's your fave crafty read
I love Nigel Slater's work - Toast and The Kitchen Diaries have influenced my approach to food.

What do you like to listen to when you craft?
The Cinematic Orchestra is my fall-back. It's easy to get lost in its textures, which is quite what you're aiming for with baking as well.

What crafty forums do you lurk in ....
Blogs replaced forums for me - see my list above.

Whats up next for you on the craft front?
My most immediate goal is to perfect gluten-free portugese custard tarts. But I guess I'm just building up my repertoire at the moment - Nice Biscuits is still but a wee thing. I want to be working with more provocative ingredients all the time. I really do like the places in which 'baking' and 'craft' intersect; the handmade, the innovative, the aesthetically intentional. So I guess I'd like to keep merging them as closely as possible.

Do you have any UFO's (unfinished objects), what are they?
There is some gluten-free snickerdoodle dough sitting in the freezer. They are way too tart but it was a double-batched fail and I can't bear to throw them away. Sometimes I can actually feed things I really don't like to other people - my friends seem to have no ability to tell when something hasn't worked - so they may make their way to the oven someday.

Where else can people shop for your goodies?
I'll be at Sprout Market in Thornbury (with Each Peach) on Thursday 3rd December, Eltham Community Market on the 6th and 20th of December, and the new year's schedule is still being determined. You can also find some of my work on the abundantly-stocked shelves of Each Peach, 506 Lygon St in East Brunswick. And I do take special orders, commissions, and suggestions at nicebiscuits.net.