It's a bit of an escape, says carer in search of the perfect custard slice

A carer who turned to social media as a little escape from her daily grind has found unexpected online fame as a custard slice reviewer.

Dawn Fearn, 52, began posting food reviews on TikTok last year to carve out small moments of respite from her role caring full-time for two elderly women with dementia.

She describes the job as physically and mentally taxing, and at times lonely, but her videos have since attracted a loyal following, with more than 50,000 people across social media joining her on her south Wales custard slice tour.

The tour has sparked new friendships and helped Dawn, from Swansea, honour her late mother, who used to take her for custard slice days as a childhood treat.

Dawn cares for her 79-year-old mother-in-law as well as a 100-year-old family friend who moved in with Dawn and her husband after struggling to live independently.

"I think as the disease has developed it's obviously more taxing on me in particular because I do the physical care, and mentally it's difficult because they're just not the same ladies that initially did come to live with us," she said.

"As a carer, you can kind of lose your identity and you haven't really got many friends because you're kind of wrapped up in doing that. So it just became a bit of a little escape."

It was this need for a break that first led her sharing reviews online. Initially posting reviews of places where she had been to eat on Google, she later moved to TikTok and says she became more "focused" on her content last February. Now her account, fearnstar, has built up 21,000 followers.

Her videos are often recorded on Fridays, when both women attend a day centre, giving her a window to visit cafes and bakeries across south Wales.

Aware that many successful influencers had a 'signature series', Dawn said that after racking her brain, the idea to review custard slices came to her in her car.

"I was literally just sitting in the car and I think I must have grabbed the custard slice and I was like, oh, that might be an idea," she said.

"I did a video in the car and I thought right, no, I am going to do a custard slice tour.

"And I did think back to my mum. When she was alive and when we were kids, she'd take us for what we called 'custard slice day' at a local café.

"I did that video and had loads of comments from people saying, 'you should try this place, you should try that place', and then I was like, right, this is a signature series."

At the time of writing, Dawn has reviewed 16 custard slices from bakeries and cafes across south Wales, and so far there are three that have made the top running.

"Glynneath Tea Rooms is up there because they are probably the closest to a custard slice that I remember, along with Fablas in Cowbridge which is also the same kind of scoring and Crazy Baker in Swansea," she explained.

To bring consistency to her reviews, she has developed her own judging system, even creating a custom "custard slice ruler" to measure each pastry, which she places in a stainless steel tray.

Each custard slice is marked out of 10, with the highest score so far (9.5) going to Glynneath Tea Rooms, near Neath.

For Dawn, the most important thing is that the custard slices are as close to the ones she remembers from her childhood - two slices of puff pastry, with custard and a plain white icing top - although she says she has let slip a few with feathered chocolate icing on top. The presence of jam, meanwhile, is a no-no.

Dawn says she is now regularly recognised out in public, something she had never expected, and receives comments on her posts from people all over the world. She has also built new friendships.

"It's grown so much now that I've got a little friend I've made on TikTok and we go out together and do food reviews as well when I've got some time off," she said.

Dawn is also keen to point out that she does not eat every custard slice in full, instead sharing them with her husband and the ladies she cares for.

The next planned stops on the tour include Cardiff, Newport and Cwmbran.

The origins of the custard slice are not well known but they are widely believed to have evolved from the French mille-feuille, a pastry that features three layers of flaky puff pastry and two layers of crème pâtissier - a thick custard bound with flour or cornstarch.

The earliest mention of the name mille-feuille itself appears in 1733 in an English-language cookbook written by French chef Vincent La Chapelle.

In south Wales and the wider UK, a custard slice is usually made with two slices of puff pastry with a decadent portion of firm custard in the middle, and finished with a layer of white icing sugar. There are several variations around the world, and the desert is very popular in Australia where it is known as a vanilla slice, or more colloquially as a 'snot block'.

According to pastry chef and cookbook author Nicola Lamb, the custard slice is "such a popular dessert that you can find a version of it in most cuisines - from Polish Napoleonka to German Cremeschnittes to Dutch Tompouces; the general message is: Our love for custard is universal. And custard slice is the most generous delivery method".