Semla buns are the biggest and best, according to baker Robin Riddell, who switched his life as a sports journalist in Sweden to start a microbakery, Semla In Seaford. “I loved journalism,” says Robin. “But I fell in love with baking.”
Baking goes a long way back in Robin’s family. “My grandad grew up in a bakery, like my son, Viggo, is doing now. I think it was in 1965 when they bought their house on a tiny island in Kos Kroner, where I’m from, in the southeast of Sweden. It was that time when every house had a store at the bottom, and you lived on the top. They had a patisserie there. My great-grandmother Toora was a pastry chef. Grandad studied baking in school and worked there until he changed careers. They now live in the part where the patisserie was.”
Robin also fell in love with his partner, Georgia, when he was backpacking in Australia doing various jobs, including polishing watermelons! After spending time in a long-distance relationship alternating between Australia and Sweden, Georgia learned Swedish and worked in Sweden. They decided to settle down in Seaford to be close to Georgia’s family in Mount Eliza.
Georgia, a copywriter and brand manager, works in the business, too. Robin is on parental leave at the moment to look after Viggo, which is very important to him. He notes that in Sweden, most men take parental leave to look after children, and it’s a time for men to catch up with each other as well.
The Swedish-baked goods Robin makes now are not vastly different from the ones his great-grandmother would have made. He has Toora’s recipe book. “Her writing was very fine. I can barely decipher what she said. It takes a while to decipher one recipe, like the Semla buns, which are the grandest thing. They’re based around Lent, and normally, you’d eat them on the last day before fasting on Fettisdagen (Fat Tuesday). That’s why they’re these big, massive buns with cream and marzipan. They’re gigantic. Normally at home (Sweden), I would eat only one, or maybe two, and then I’m happy. You can’t not get messy because they have icing sugar on top and you have icing sugar on your nose… you’ll get cream all over your face… people have competitions to see if you can eat one without wiping your face; it’s not possible,” Robin laughs.
Swedes are very atheistic. They don’t believe in God, but they believe in stuff like this. They go ballistic for it. It’s a tradition, like Christmas
“For us, in the bakery, it symbolises what food means to people because, in Sweden, it’s the darkest time – pitch black when you get home from work – and you have Semla Day. Swedes are very atheistic. They don’t believe in God, but they believe in stuff like this. They go ballistic for it. It’s a tradition, like Christmas.”
Robin bakes a variety of buns and sourdough bread and has a ‘surprise’ subscription, which is delivered every Friday and includes a different bread every time. He says, “Scandinavia has so many different breads I could make a new one every Friday and not get through it in a lifetime. A lot of them use rye and barley. When it comes to flour, I use sustainable, wholegrain flour, including from Tuerong down Mornington way.” Robin also has a small mill and mills his own grain. “The crop can be tricky to bake with sometimes, and you need to know how to adjust flour with different ingredients.
Big commercial bakeries put a lot of ascorbic acid in their bread to make it uniform.”
Robin reports that people are more drawn to artisan makers now and don’t mind paying a bit extra to get something special. They’re also attracted to the health benefits. He says, “I make darker breads but still try to make them taste like light, fluffy bread, so you get both.”
Robin and Georgia see a long-term future in baking. “We’re trying to make it ‘Steady as you go.’ We do the markets together; the Mornington Racecourse Market on the second Sunday of the month and Little Birdie in Mordialloc. We hope to do the Red Hill Market soon. We’ve said ‘No’ to wholesale because we want to be able to sell them the way we want to.”
If you don’t catch Semla In Seaford at a market, they do home deliveries every Friday from Mornington to Edithvale (order by 12 noon, Wednesday). They also have a Saturday pop-up at Edigrocer in Edithvale.