A social enterprise bakery, which offers life-changing training to vulnerable women, has celebrated its 10th birthday.
Since starting in a church kitchen in Bethnal Green, Luminary Bakery has helped scores of disadvantaged women to gain the skills and confidence to find work or set up their own businesses - and has even been championed by the Duchess of Sussex.
As well as serving loyal customers at their cafes in Stoke Newington and Camden, they bake celebration cakes, serve delicious treats at corporate events for the likes of Microsoft and Deloitte, and post their bakes UK-wide.
Founder Alice Williams got the idea while volunteering in a women's refuge: "The women were just about recovered from an emergency, had got to a point of relative stability, safe from violence, and were ready to try to rebuild but said: 'I don't know how I do that'.
"They were keen to work, but getting stuck. I knew we needed to create employment opportunities and get them to a point of being employable with training. I was working at a cafe at the time, so it seemed a good place to start - and the hospitality sector is always hiring."
After five years selling their bakes to local cafes, they opened their own place in Stoke Newington in 2017, then a second in Camden in 2019, where Meghan Markle dropped by for a visit, and featured them when guest-editing Vogue.
"The Camden cafe was perfect because there was a separate space for training. It's important that women who are fearful of men have that female space. It's part of forming a sisterhood and common understanding, not everyone's experience is the same, but they've been through this path together," said Williams.
For six months, the women learn to bake flapjacks, cup-cakes, salted caramel brownies, and top selling cinnamon swirls, developing new recipes as part of their apprenticeship. They also learn food hygiene, money management, and are supported by mentors to plan careers.
Ruth, who arrived in London from Nigeria in 2010 as an asylum seeker, is now studying make-up at college. She says: "I had traumatic experiences, I had to deal with issues like housing, and I was struggling with my mental health.
"They helped me through that, and helped me to cope. It helped me find my purpose. I was a very shy person and it brought out my confidence so I saw myself as someone who could do things - like studying and singing in a choir."
Many of the women talk of the community they gained at Luminary.
"I've got friends for life," says Chenice, who struggled with young motherhood but is now living with her partner and young daughter in Camden, and running her own party sweets business.
"There's a diversity of women, we might not have a lot in common, but we support each other and have a bond together. I wouldn't be in the place I am without it."
Latifa is a mum of three who graduated last year and is now teaching on the course while studying patisserie.
"I was going through a divorce. I got married at 19 and my marriage was quite abusive," she says. "I was not allowed to work or socialise so it was very difficult for me when he did leave, I had no skills. I met people who had gone through a similar journey and realised that while I enjoy baking and picked up the skills, the thing I enjoyed most was teaching. I want to work in community projects, I like helping others."
Halimot is a mum of four and a Nigeria-born survivor of child trafficking, who fled her captors at 15. She arrived at Luminary at a low point in her life, after experiencing depression and feeling "worthless" but she took to baking instantly and now has a business making gorgeous birthday and celebration cakes.
"I couldn't bake before but I knew from the first day that I enjoyed it and wanted to do it for the future," she says.
Alice started the programme in 2019, and following an apprenticeship landed a full time job at the cafe. She even has a tattoo of Luminary's moon logo on her hand.
"I had to run away from someone violent and my sister found this place," she says. "I didn't have any confidence but thought I would give it a go and I never looked back.
"They are like a family to me, if it wasn't for Luminary I wouldn't be the strong independent woman I am. I will never leave."
Luminary Bakery is at 47, Chalk Farm Road, and 71-73 Allen Road, Stoke Newington.
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