amelia spring - Flour child

Home Cook

Former wills and estates solicitor and ex-environmental consultant, current student and legal officer at Child Safety. I get to spend 24/7 in a kitchen, living my best life. I dabble in all things baked, fried, steamed, iced, sprinkled, whisked… Check my recipes for all the mischief I get up to after hours.

A Short History

I grew up in the seaside town of Coolum Beach on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. I grew up in a house in the middle of the hill.

I am the eldest of three human children. I have a younger brother and sister, and I’ve always had an adopted brother/sister dog. First there was Bunk Bunk the Irish Wolfhound cross everything, then there was Gaia the Blue Heeler cross Alsatian and then came Max the Jack Russell/Wonder dog.

On 13 December 2012, I welcomed my own fluffy cloud of a son. Yes, I have my own puppy named Yuki. He is a Japanese Spitz. He is a smart, perfect little fluff-nugget who always has a cheeky smile on his face. He gets told he’s beautiful all the time by strangers on our morning outings and afternoon walks. He is beautiful and it’s confirmed that he got it from his mumma. The day after his 11th birthday he became my guardian angel (RIP 14.12.2023 always remembered, never forgotten, my dear first born son).

Bear was born on 22 October 2023 and he came home with me on 3 January 2024. He is Yuki’s little brother and my little bundle of joy. It was love at first sight. He is learning…

My parents are both high school teachers who from a very young age instilled a love of learning in all of us children. Naturally, I loved school. I loved school work and homework. I loved mathematics, chemistry, biology, language studies and English. I was always going to go to university in Brisbane to study something and that’s what I did. I studied two years of Chemical Engineering at University of Queensland, then changed to a dual degree of Laws and Applied Science majoring in Environmental Science. I graduated in December of 2016 with a distinction in my science major. I completed my practical legal training and got admitted into the Supreme Court in 2017. Shortly, after I began practising as a solicitor at a small private practice two days a week, and the remaining days I spent as a bushfire consultant. Skip to 2020 and I landed a job at an environmental consultancy firm. Then on the week of my birthday in 2020, a day after to be precise, the firm I worked for let me go. Something about not enough time to train a new staff member and being the newest staff member, the farewell was the easiest. They say everything happens for a reason, and I am starting to see that. I started a new chapter in cooking, I took a deep dive into the culinary world and I came out alive - I do have horror stories.

My story

The kitchen is my happy place. My sweet escape from my everyday is the kitchen. I love making a mess in my tiny kitchen with Yuki and a handy apron. I have been baking and cooking since I was a very young pup. I have learnt a lot from my mum and mum’s mum and a few thousand cookbooks and tv shows.

I run. I run far and sometimes fast. I love to run. I love to make food to fuel my runs. Whilst, I am a firm believer in a diet of 80/20 sweet to savoury, you might find the odd healthy recipe. But as the wise Ms Christina Tosi says, “life’s too short to worry about how many cookies you ate today.”

My grandmother. Yes, this is the oldest tale in the book of my-nonna-taught-me-how-to-cook. I have two grandmothers and both have the gift of the whisk. The grandma I spent most of my time with was referred to by me and my cousins as “Mutti”. My mutti died the day after my birthday on the 14 October 2017. My Mutti continues to be the biggest inspiration and influence on my cooking. My first memory of Christmas was family cooking day with Mutti, my mum dressed me in a handmade Christmas outfit, apron and armed me with a wooden spoon. I remember fighting with my sister over licking the empty condensed milk tin after scrunching weet-bix for rumballs. I remember Mutti would always get a slightly larger bottle of rum than what was needed so she could have a baker’s night cap. We had a special relationship built on baking and sugar. She was a sweet tooth like me and taught me the importance of always having a treat on hand for an unexpected guest or a sugar low emergency. She often had up to three tubs of cookies and cream ice cream in her freezer at any one time. My Mutti had this dream for me that I would one day open my own place called ‘Spring’. One day I will.