Charlotte and friends share slice of happiness

SLICE OF HAPPINESS: Good Bitches Baking Wairarapa founder Charlotte Lane, left, and Linda Tilyard of King Street Artworks -- one of Good Bitches' recipient charities.

A Masterton woman is using her childhood passion and personal therapy to spread happiness throughout the community.

Charlotte "Char" Lane has founded the Wairarapa chapter of Good Bitches Baking, a non-profit group which provides home-baked treats to "people going through times" and the community organisations which support them.

Good Bitches Baking was originally set up last year by Wellington women Nic Murray and Marie Fitzpatrick, who wanted to help "make the world a bit less s***ty" by delivering home baking to people in need -- women and children fleeing domestic violence, parents with children in hospital, and palliative care patients.

The group now has seven active chapters throughout New Zealand, 430 bakers taking part and 48 recipient organisations -- and has delivered over 1800 boxes of baking.

Since the Wairarapa chapter was started in August, "head bitches" Char and friend Rachel Brown, with assistance from a team of keen bakers from all over the region, have delivered Anzac biscuits, cupcakes, brownies and Chelsea Winter apple strudels to chosen charities Hospice Wairarapa, Wairarapa Women's Refuge and King Street Artworks.

"For me, food equals happiness," Char said. "Baking is my depression therapy. I'm always baking and trying new recipes but my family can't eat it all. Baking keeps me smiling, so why not use deliver a little bit of that happiness to others?"

Char has been baking since the age of eight, when her mum taught her to make the "Three-Minute Spongecake" from the Edmonds Cookery Book.

"I've been going ever since," Char said. "I have so many cookbooks, it's insane. I'm a bit of a Chelsea Winter freak -- her recipes are so flavourful and well-written."

This year, she stumbled across Good Bitches Baking online, and contacted the Wellington chapter to ask if she could help. "They said, 'well, you could always start it up where you are.'"

Char then took to Facebook, and was able to recruit an enthusiastic team of 10 bakers.

She chose hospice and women's refuge as the main beneficiaries, as both have assisted her and her family in the past.

"They are wonderful organisations. My grandfather was in a hospice, and they made him so happy for the last few weeks of his life."

Char said the Wairarapa group has done six baking drives for its charities, with each box of goodies more ecstatically received than the last.

"It's so rewarding -- I went to hospice with about seven cake boxes, and the patients thought it was amazing. At refuge, the women kept saying, 'are you sure this for us?'

"These are people who are either really sick or struggling with life, and they don't get treats that often."

Char plans to recruit more bakers to expand the list of recipients -- which she hopes will include Henley Mens Shed.

"A lot of the charities we have supported have been for women and children -- but guys like baking, too."

If you want to help Good Bitches Baking, contact Charlotte Lane on 022 607 2963, or www.goodbitchesbaking.co.nz