It’s been nearly four years since I wrote a blog post but as I’m laid up with Covid this week, I thought it was time I got my act together and gave a little update. Hard to condense so much that’s happened into one post, but I’ll share some of the headlines and highlights.

First things first, I’ve got a new web address: richardburr.co.uk. As I hadn’t blogged for a few years I let my previous domain name expire, but I’ve had lots of people asking where my recipe links had gone, so with the patient help of my IT department (my wife, Sarah) we’ve transferred everything over here. It also made sense to change it from a .london address as a big change in our lives over the past year is that we’ve left London. Both Sarah and I were born and bred Londoners, like our parents/grandparents/great-grandparents before us, but since the pandemic we’ve craved more green space and fresh air. 

Another big change for me has been leaving the building trade. I’ve loved being a builder and I love working with my hands. I was a business partner with my Dad so I had the choice to carry on our building business when he retired or to consider doing something else. My Dad is the hardest working person I’ve ever met, but physical work can take its toll on you and there’s a vulnerability that comes with your ability to earn an income being linked to your physical health. Ten years ago (before going on the Bake Off), I’d completed a part-time BSc in Biodiversity & Conservation with a view to working in the environmental sector. But the Bake Off years afterwards were so unpredictable – in a good way – that being self-employed worked well for me. Just over three years ago I went for my first ever job interview, got the role, and haven’t looked back. After years of taking doorstep pictures of the kids on their first days at school, they took the picture of me above on my first day in the new job. I now work with a brilliant team as passionate about the environment as I am, and I’ve learnt so much in three years. While my building work meant I always needed to be based in North London – where our established customer base was – the job change meant we could consider moving for the first time.

As I mentioned the last time I blogged, a few years ago I started a part-time MSc in Historic Building Conservation at the Weald & Downland Museum, also known as the home of The Repair Shop. It meant travelling down to the beautiful South Downs every few months. In January last year during the second or third lockdown, Sarah and I decided we’d put the house on the market and move. Suburban London hadn’t been much fun during the pandemic lockdowns – not much green space around and then when traffic got back to normal levels, you really noticed the poor air quality. If we were going to leave London, Sarah and the kids wanted to be nearer to the coast so we very quickly settled on West Sussex, which I’d got to know through my MSc course and Sarah through her job. We sold our house quite quickly so moved down here to rent about a year ago. We bought our home in December and moved into it in May, after having extensive renovations done. 

We’ve been sharing our renovation progress on Instagram at Casa Burr. The house was built in 1959 so has lots of mid-century features that we’ve kept. It was a bit strange for me at first to have other builders working on the house, as it’s the first time I’ve not done the bulk of the building work myself. But our builders were great – they built an extension, rewired the house, put in all new central heating and plastered every room. It’s been my job to fit the kitchen, do all the decorating, and eventually re-do the bathrooms, which as you’ll see on Instagram is a work in progress. But the most amazing thing about our new home is the garden. It’s nearly an acre and includes a wooded section at the back, where our regular visitor (pictured above) lives. Every time we’re out in the garden we know we made the right decision to move.

I haven’t had as much opportunity to bake over the past few years, partly because the pandemic put the kybosh on parties and events. But above are a few of my favourite cakes from the past few years. My girls love floral motifs so there’s a bit of a theme to their cake requests these days. Our kids are now 13, 10 and 6 years old, so they’re all becoming good bakers themselves and I’m so impressed by their ideas and creativity. I’m really enjoying building a new kitchen to bake in with loads of countertop space and a big baking pantry for all my gear.

Anyway, it’s good to have a website back up and running and the chance to share how much has changed for me and our family. Once my kitchen is sorted I’ll start posting more recipes again too. Thanks for all the support, good wishes and kind messages and I’ll see you again soon. I won’t leave it four years this time!