Baking brilliance: Catherine Beddall has her cake and serves it too

Posted on Friday, May 25th, 2018

When Catherine Beddall graduated from Algonquin in 1998, she didn’t know she’d be coming back. And when she came back in 2011, she didn’t know she’d be staying.

The College gave Beddall the means to shape one career — as a graphic designer — and then opportunity to follow two more — as a pastry chef and a teacher.

Oh, and you might add author to that list. Two years ago, the award-winning Ottawa baker published a handsome book of gingerbread creations called The Magic of Gingerbread, a step-by-step guide which, no surprise, Beddall also designed.

When Beddall first came to Algonquin, after realizing the journalism program at Carleton University wasn’t working for her, she wanted a career that would give rein to her artistic bent. She enrolled in the Graphic Design program, loved it, and enjoyed a satisfying 12-year career as a designer with the federal government.

But somewhere along the line, her artistic flair found a new outlet. A hobby baker since childhood, she volunteered to make a wedding cake for a friend, and her creation sparked requests for more cakes – with increasingly elaborate designs. Soon the full-time public servant had a part-time career in cake batter and fondant.

Hoping to make her hobby a full-time thing, Beddall decided to go back to Algonquin to study her craft formally. Most of her fellow students in the Baking and Pastry Arts program were more than a decade younger, but that didn’t faze her.

“It was really fun, the group was great and I made a lot of friends,” she says. “In the end, I wasn’t really conscious of the whole mature-student thing.”

Though Beddall was already a skilled baker, the program taught her technique, and gave her a grounding in both the chemistry of baking and the best practices for running a business, she says. It was precisely the preparation she was looking for.

She wasn’t prepared at all, however, for what happened next. At the end of the program, Beddall was offered a job teaching new students how to make gum paste flowers. Her skills, developed on her own and honed under expert tutelage, would be an asset to the College, she was told.

“I never saw myself as a teacher, and honestly never thought I could do it. And when I actually stood in front of the class and talked about what I love to do and shared my skill, I realized that I not only could do it, but I loved doing it.”

Other courses followed and Beddall learned to balance part-time teaching with her ongoing cake business. Then about a year ago, she and the College had another idea. Why not bring Beddall’s successful bakery under its own roof? Baking and Pastry Arts students could be guaranteed a high-end work placement without leaving campus.

In February 2018, after months of discussion and preparation, Beddall opened the Honour Roll Bakery in partnership with Algonquin’s School of Hospitality and Tourism. The bakery, which offers ready-made treats and takes special orders, operates as an adjunct to Savoir Fare, the popular gourmet food store on Ottawa campus.

“When I was approached to bring my business to the College, that was a whole other evolution,” says Beddall. “It means so much to me that my work is valued enough that they wanted me to start this business on campus as a way to help mentor baking and pastry students.”

As it turns out, says Beddall, Algonquin is as good a place to work as it is to be a student. “I’m always impressed every day by the dedication and the passion that I see in the instructors here. It just makes it worthwhile to come here and work with people like that.”

Given the path of her success, the designer-turned-baker-turned-entrepreneur-turned-teacher offers eminently sensible advice to future Algonquin graduates.

“Be open to changes in your career.”

Check out the Honour Roll Bakery’s website: https://www.algonquincollege.com/honourroll/


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