A new South Cumbrian bakery has opened its doors at Levens Hall.
The historic house, near Kendal, is home to Levens Kitchen, which is a popular and award-winning destination for foodies.
It opened three years ago with head chef Robert Stacey at the helm and demand for cake and home-baked bread have gone though the roof since Robert and pastry chef Mireia Ferreres Luna, appeared on TV show Bake Off: The Professionals in 2022.
It was decided to create a separate, self-contained Levens Bakery to take pressure off the existing kitchen.
The new bakery is housed in what was a 1960s lean-to and the former home of Bertha, a Fowler Showman’s engine, which departed for pastures new some years ago.
Levens Bakery serves takeaway cakes, pastries and bread, to locals and visitors alike but the dynamic duo behind it now have a new challenge.
As Robert and Mireia plan the sweet and savoury delights that will grace their counter in the months ahead, a little delving into the history books has suggested they should maybe name something after a horse.
The horse in question is Copenhagen, the trusted mount of the Duke of Wellington.
While Wellington is associated with historic houses such as Apsley House, many people may not realise there is also a strong connection to Levens Hall and Gardens near Kendal, where Levens Bakery is based.
Various items belonging to both Wellington and his adversary, Napoleon and inherited by Wellington’s niece, Mary Wellesley, can be found at Levens Hall. It is a major pull for visitors and it was while a little research was being conducted into Wellington, and his love of the steed that stood strong with him during 17 tortuous hours of battle at Waterloo, that a strange fact came to light.
Copenhagen, a 15 hands high chestnut horse, born in 1808, retired from service after Waterloo (1815) and was put out to grass at the Duke’s Stratfield Saye estate.
There, the horse, of mixed thoroughbred and Arabian parentage, whose mother was the offspring of a Derby winner, is said to have developed a very sweet tooth.
Copenhagen had always had a curious habit of eating only while lying down but he suddenly started to consume far too many sugary dainties, such as sponge cakes, bath buns and chocolate creams. It was said that this led to his 1836 demise, at the age of 28, leading to a burial overseen by the Duke himself.
This historic link to baked goods and patisserie has now got the Levens Bakery team thinking hard about something that could be named in Copenhagen’s honour and put on sale, to delight others with a similar love of sweet bakes.
Given the skill that Robert and Mireia showed on Bake Off: the Professionals, in producing everything from a London-themed treacle tart to bees filled with a peach compote centre, this, as they say, should be a piece of cake.
