When we think about 2020, we will always remember the scent of hand sanitiser and some sort of freshly baked good… It was the year of food trends – some a little bizarre, if we are honest! Banana bread, cloud bread, sourdough, pancake cereal, biscuit cereal… You name it, we made it – and ate every last crumb!

When we had all baked our last banana bread (not because we were tired of it but because had we baked any more banana bread, bananas would have become extinct), we moved on to something cheerfully bright and satisfyingly doughy – garden focaccia bread.

“Garden flatbreads” (an innovation from Instagram’s blondieandrye) made its social media debut in early 2020 and the “garden focaccia trend” was born. With each bake prettier than the last, this doughy “canvas” for edible vegetable art kept millions captivated. The pursuit for perfection was on, and only practice made perfect! Bake after bake, the appeal never faltered… A marvelling beacon of hope in uncertain times, this artsy bread kept our tummies full and our hearts smiling!

This simple yet charmingly delectable concept used ingeniously arranged vegetables and edible morsels to create serene garden scenes. Grass, flowers, foliage and anything you can think of were all hand-crafted to create unreal, stunning floral bread landscapes.

Let’s set the scene: The freshly baked bread aroma hits you – you can almost taste it … Not only does it smell like heaven; it is a true work of art!

(A little tip from one garden focaccia baker to another: edible flowers and delicates alike should be added nearer towards the end of baking to avoid a shrivelled flower display that threatens the overall aesthetic of the baked beauty!)

But, of course, before you dig in you must get the perfect picture because how can something so beautiful not be documented? (Also, if you did not post about it on social media, did you even really make it?) Chuffed, you smile to yourself – it’s the small things in life, the golden “garden focaccia perfection” moments, that helped us through 2020.