Great Canadian Baking Show contestant settles back into his Langford kitchen

(John Fowler and his coffee cake. Photo: Michael John Lo)

Every time John Fowler gets recognized by someone unfamiliar, he’s taken aback for a moment: Are they a former student, or a fan?

Aside from working in UVic’s geography department, the Langford resident was a contestant in the latest season of the Great Canadian Baking Show.

“It is kind of odd,” Fowler told Tasting Victoria in his home, shortly after decorating a coffee cake. “It was [a] once-in-a-lifetime experience for sure.”

Being on the show hasn’t changed his life—Fowler came in fifth—but it means he now occasionally gets recognized on the street. Despite not winning, he’s happy to have been on the show; now, he has a group of friends to talk to about the minutiae of American, Swiss, or Italian buttercream.

“I literally have nine new best friends,” Fowler said. “These people know exactly what I’m talking about when I mention the different types of buttercream,” he said.

As a child in Newfoundland, baking was a big part of his life. His grandmother was the star baker of the family, often providing freshly-made bread, tarts, and cookies every week.

“She always wanted to have a bakery of her own,” he recalled of his grandmother. “Back in her early days, she used to make wedding cakes.”

“I remember as a kid, when she used to make cream puffs, thinking: how do you make something so small become so big and puffy and delicious? And it was almost like something magical.”

While Fowler’s practice has waxed and waned over the years, the Great Canadian Baking Show kicked things into overdrive. He’s grateful for that. “I usually need a reason to bake something,” said Fowler.

For the moment, he’s pared down on the baking to prepare for his wedding in May, and his fiancé, Martin Cockerill (also the primary taste tester) is both elated and disappointed. “His baking is amazing,” he said.

Part of what makes Fowler’s baking so good is his ingredients, which are sourced from around Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland. Most of his equipment is from Cook Culture, his honey from Fernwood Honey, and butter from Market on Millstream.

“It’s hard to get super high-quality butter here,” he said of Victoria. When Fowler is on a baking spree, he ends up making a trip to Costco to buy in bulk. “When I was doing the practice baking for the show, I’m sure I went through probably like 30 pounds [of butter],” Fowler said.

While his fiance often gets the first slice of the baked goods, the extras usually end up with Fowler’s colleagues. Baking is part of the culture at UVic: the geography department has a long-standing twice-a-year baking competition. “It’s funny, because I rarely ever win,” Fowler said with a laugh.

“Now I have people who are nervous to bake for me,” Fowler said. “But that’s the thing with baking: even if it isn’t professional or high quality, it’s still always good.”

Baking shouldn’t be very difficult or complicated, he added. It often just requires time and patience to learn from mistakes. When things don’t work out, just try again. “I’ve made recipes repeatedly where they come up perfectly and then one time they just fail,” Fowler said. “I have no idea why.”

But one piece of baking advice generally holds: “Cream your butter and sugar longer than you think, especially if you want it light and fluffy.”

Think closer to six or eight minutes, he advises.

“Things don’t just come together in two to three minutes.”