About this Dane...

The Baked Dane started as a hobby during my first maternity leave. I am a person who struggles to sit still and have an uncontrollable passion and desire to create stuff that makes the endorphins hit the roof.

Growing up, money was always tight, but lucky for me I have been raised by a tribe of fierce, hardworking, strongminded, independent Viking women, who passed on some amazing life lessons. I live by these and implement them in every aspect of my life and business. For example, NOTHING ever goes to waste, one person’s trash is a creative woman's treasure, and what doesn’t kill you only makes you live longer 😉

My earliest memory of food is Smørrebrød, traditional Danish open sandwiches, which my Mormor (grandma) used to whip up at the pub where she worked. I would sit on the chest freezer in the kitchen, sipping Faxe Kondi (the Danish equivalent to L&P), learning about every single step of putting Smørrebrød together. My Mormor would explain in detail the importance of getting the balance of sweet, sour, salty and bitter right so that all the components balance properly, while also making it look enticing. She would show me how thick the slices of Ryebread should be, the amount of butter to get just the right amount of ‘tooth-butter’ when biting through. 

All throughout my childhood my mum  showed me how to go out and get what you want by exhilarating in everything you do, listen to your gut, roll your sleeves up and get to work. She has always given everything a proper go! This took us on train trips, (we didn’t have a car) all over  Denmark, where she would directly  approach shops and sell her oil paintings which she had printed on gift and post cards. Following her passion mum set up a clothes sales franchise business in our lounge and  many more cool adventures followed. “It's only the fantasy that sets boundaries” and “We can make that ourselves” pretty much sum up my role model, my mum Sanni Brink who single-handedly, with the help of my Tip oldemor (great-great grandmother), raised me.

I grew up in "the hood" in Fredericia, Denmark where we lived above a pizzeria owned by a Turkish Dad, Dogan and his two sons Mikail and Daniel. My mum says I lived in the pizzeria and slept in our apartment. Every day after school I’d rush home, throw my schoolbag in the door and go down and sit on yet another chest freezer.

This was my front-row seat to the best school ever. From here I could observe everything that was going on in the busy little pizzeria, and by the time I turned 11, with the deceiving height of someone much older, I was spinning dough behind the counter, taking orders over the phone, doing dishes and prepping ingredients. When I turned 14, I landed an after-school job in another pizzeria in town and ran the shop on my own for a couple of hours every afternoon. At 16, I started working the nightstand pizzeria at one of the local clubs.

Despite working in hospitality most of my early life, I decided on a different career path. I wanted a life where I could travel the world and never have to have the same worries my mum had about money. So, I became a sea freight forwarder.

In 2011, I went backpacking around the world with my best friend Amalie. We spent a month travelling through New Zealand and I completely fell in love with the stunning nature, multicultural communities and chilled people - one of them even stole my heart.

In 2012 I made the move from Denmark to NZ. I started my life in Aotearoa in Tāmaki Makaurau, where I lived for 4 years. I started a job as a shipping assistant and worked my way up to senior logistics coordinator, everything was going according to plan and then life happened  -  literally - I was pregnant.

Three weeks before having my first child, I swapped my career life in the fast lane, out for motherhood in rural Levin… to call this challenging would be an understatement. I am often described as an active relaxer, so during my maternity leave, I was faced with a huge challenge and a completely different scenario to what I had experienced before in my life.

With a lot of spare time, a jar of 4-year-old sourdough starter and baby strapped to my chest, I started baking. I baked and baked and baked to stay entertained and try to adapt to my new life and title as someone’s mother. I loved it. So much so, that when I returned back to work, I kept baking. One day, a friend suggested I take all my baked goods to a local farmers market to sell, so I did and sold out in 25 minutes.

The following week I had people contacting me wanting more and as this scenario kept repeating itself, I decided to quit my day job, cash out $1437 of leave pay and spend it on seeds, flour and olive oil and give this passion of mine a proper crack. I received extremely valuable, support, help and knowledge from my little community on Painua Road in Levin. I lived up the road from a veggie grower who had sold at the Harbourside market for years, Levin’s best engineer aka. Superman and his wife Levin’s best cleaner was just down the road and Bobby D my neighbour who used to run his own café. They all helped me take my hobby to a business in no time. Fast forward a couple of years and I found myself pregnant with my second child so I decided it was time to get some help on board. An old granny flat on our property got transformed into a little bakery and I hired two amazing local women. For a couple of years we worked away in the little bakehouse during the week. On the weekends, I would go to the farmer's markets and sell it all. As word spread, people from all over the country started to get in touch, we got a couple of outlets who wanted to stock our baked goods and we started getting busy, and as our amazing team of slayers grew, so did the need for more space. Four years flew past like months and before I knew it, I had a set of architectural plans in my hands for a huge shed to be built on the front paddock of my rural property that I planned to move the business into. But Ms Universe had other plans for me and if there is one thing, I know for sure it’s that there is no arguing with her, she always wins! So I stole my heart back, left the property on Painua Road and started the search for a location for The Baked Dane to move into. In June 2023, 5 Bush Street in Levin, became the new address for the Queendom. In July 2023 we opened the doors to our very own beautiful little shop -everything you see in this shop was either thrifted, stolen… I mean borrowed 😉,  gifted and recycled. The shelves are stocked with some of the most delicious products from all over NZ which all pair perfectly with our Scandinavian-inspired creations and freshly baked 100% sourdough loaves.

After five weeks of experimenting, we gave Levin a taste of Sourdough pastry Danish’s with homemade custard.

In October 2023 a hole was kicked in the shop wall and from here we sold filled sourdough rolls, Smørrebrød (open danish rye sandwiches), gourmet Toasties and delicious fresh salads. It's safe to say that 2023 was a whirlwind of a year!

Now this next chapter isn’t the easiest to write about, but I am going to wo-man up, be brave and share with you what happened when I hit rock bottom at the top. 

I have always admired strong independent women, one of my all-time favorites is cultural icon Beyoncé. When life gave Queen Bey lemons she made Lemonade, an album that won her two Grammy awards. I tried my absolute best at making lemonade for years with the lemon’s life threw my way and I even won some awards along the way too, but in the end, my recipe was the one for disaster. Even though I am extremely good at running fast and even better at pretending everything is all good in the hood, it never was. Suddenly it was impossible to run away from my mental and physical health state. This of course happened at the busiest time of my life, at the busiest time of year, when everything was flying out the door and I was in the middle of a huge business growth spurt and then boom!!! I was burnt out, depressed and unable to do anything for months. During this time, I learnt that I have some incredible people beside me and a team of slayers who are capable of so much more than I could have ever wished for. I also learned that at 36 years old you can still just need your mum to hold you tight and tell you it's going to be alright. I don’t think there will ever be a way I can thank everyone around me enough for having my back in this rough time, but I will forever try to.

I come up with creative ideas and recipes all the time, but after the roughest chapter in my life, I have decided that when life gives me lemons, I am going to preserve them, for three reasons, preserved Lemons are flipping delicious, real good things take time and Lemonade is just too damn average for this Dane!