For some, lockdown baking was a way to pass the time. For Katie Urquhart it was the start of a whole new adventure.
In April 2020, just as Scotland was settling in to its first lockdown, the 36-year-old launched a patisserie business from her Moray home.
Multiple cakes and macaroons later – many adorned with her signature edible flowers – Katie is now preparing to open a cafe and coffee shop on the Findhorn waterfront.
“It’s going to be very different to anything you’ve seen in Findhorn before,” says Katie, who moved to the north-east 12 years ago from her native Hungary. “It will be as much a patisserie as a coffee shop, though that depends on how busy it’ll be.”
With Torta – Hungarian for cake – opening on Wednesday April 27, Katie hopes to attract as many customers with the views as through her baking.
A Findhorn community pillar
The new coffee shop has room for 22 people and is in a historic building next to the Royal Findhorn Yacht Club – at the centre of the town’s community for nearly 100 years.
Directly on the waterfront, Torta commands a spectacular panorama of Findhorn Bay and the boats and vessels sailing in and out of the Moray Firth.
“It’s lovely,” says Katie, “though you never know what the weather’s going to be like.”
Married to a local for the past nine years and with two children, Katie moved to Findhorn in November, immediately falling in love with the coastal town.
She first came to the area from Budapest as a business student at Moray College before returning to the school to study for a chef’s degree.
It was while doing the degree, which she completed just before the first Covid lockdown, that Katie developed her passion for creating decorations for her cakes out of edible flowers.
The art has since evolved into the baker’s calling card, and the secret to her lockdown patisserie success.
“I just love edible flowers,” Katie explains. “They smell wonderful so I pop them on the cakes. My aim is to make people happy, that’s what my passion has always been.”
New horizons
Right now, however, Katie’s focus is on next week’s coffee shop opening.
Her flower cakes will play a starring role, but she has also partnered with other Moray businesses to help offer a full cafe experience to customers.
Elgin’s Stew n Drew’s ice cream will supply desserts while a vegan baker from Nairn further bolsters the menu.
Coffee shop details
The cafe will open from 9am to about 3pm every Wednesday through to Saturday (Sunday is 10am to 2pm), serving breakfasts and light lunches.
Katie hopes to keep the business running all year, though right now she is mostly concerned about next Wednesday’s opening.
“I don’t know how many pieces of cake I need to make,” she says with a laugh, “but we’ll see what happens.”
