As a midwife, Lauren Sturman enjoyed helping mums deliver beautiful creations.

Now she is producing and delivering beautiful creations of her own - macarons and cakes.

For the 28-year-old from Briston has stepped away from her full-time hospital role to focus on the business of baking.

Mis Sturman had always enjoyed baking but when the coronavirus pandemic hit, she was doing it more and more as a way of relaxing and unwinding from the pressures of her job.

She would take her homemade macarons into work at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn to boost morale and colleagues would often tell her the treats were good enough to sell.

But it was not until she realised her work-life balance was tipped too far in the wrong direction that she decided to start selling her baking and launch Crumble & Velvet.

Miss Sturman said: "I have baked for years and years but it all began when the pandemic hit. Being a midwife it's a very high-pressure job and with the pandemic, it's made the workload significantly worse.

Fakenham & Wells Times: Lauren Sturman, from Briston, has taken a step back from being a midwife to launch a baking business.Lauren Sturman, from Briston, has taken a step back from being a midwife to launch a baking business. (Image: Neil Didsbury)

"I've never sold [my baking]. The baking side of it was how I relaxed at the end of busy days at work. I was making all these macarons and taking them into work as a pick me up and all my colleagues were saying 'you should sell them', 'you should sell them'."

After deciding she wanted to pursue her baking, Miss Sturman handed in her notice and switched to being a part-time midwife. She said having more time to think about what she wanted, made her re-evaluate her work-life balance.

Fakenham & Wells Times: Lauren Sturman, from Briston, has taken a step back from being a midwife to launch a baking business.Lauren Sturman, from Briston, has taken a step back from being a midwife to launch a baking business. (Image: Neil Didsbury)

"It just makes you realise what's important in life really and what you value. I guess I was just completely run into the ground," she said.

Concentrating on macarons but also branching out into cupcakes and celebration cakes, Miss Sturman started to sell her baked goods in her family's butcher's shop M&M Rutland in Melton Constable, and soon, people were coming to purely for Miss Sturman's baking.

Cooking from home and driving the majority of her trade through Instagram Miss Sturman said the motto for her business was 'Life Begins Now', which took inspiration from her midwifery training, change of direction and from customers trying her macarons for the first time.

Fakenham & Wells Times: Lauren Sturman, from Briston, has taken a step back from being a midwife to launch a baking business.Lauren Sturman, from Briston, has taken a step back from being a midwife to launch a baking business. (Image: Neil Didsbury)

Fakenham & Wells Times: Lauren Sturman, from Briston, has taken a step back from being a midwife to launch a baking business.Lauren Sturman, from Briston, has taken a step back from being a midwife to launch a baking business. (Image: Neil Didsbury)