Terry Morrison, who for the past 11 years has worked for Conways on Pynsent Street, is happy with the career he's had.

"Everything slots in just the way it should. I've been lucky," Mr Morrison told the Wimmera Mail-Times.

It was career that began soon after Mr Morrison left school at the age of 17.

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"I had a couple of weeks working, cleaning windows up the main street, then I did a couple of weeks assembling vulcan heaters at a foundry in Horsham," Mr Morrison said.

"In the meantime, I'd interviewed for an apprenticeship at a bakery up in Jeparit... I'd always liked cooking and baking."

Mr Morrison said his parents had introduced him to cooking at home.

"Slices like hedgehog, biscuits and all that sort of stuff...I had a liking for that," he said.

The bakery in Jeparit wasn't like any around today, Mr Morrison said.

"(The owner) had an old brick oven, it used to be kerosene fired and we used a big peel to get the tins in and out," he said.

"It was hot, there was no air-conditioning back then. (My boss) used to check the oven temperature by opening the door and putting your arm in.

"The little hairs on your arm would go poof in little clouds of smoke and that meant the oven was hot. You couldn't put anything in the oven until you got that signal."

Mr Morrison spent two years at the Jeparit Bakery before it expanded after purchasing the West Wimmera Bakery in Nhill.

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"We all moved from Jeparit to Nhill; the shop in Jeparit was kept and there was a little van that delivered fresh stuff over to Jeparit," he said.

Nhill wasn't for Mr Morrison and after completing his apprenticeship he left the bakery.

"I came straight back to Horsham and got a job with Schwarz Bread Factory; they had a bakery about three houses down from the house I grew up in," he said.

Working at Schwarz Bread Factory - then one of Horsham's biggest employers with 60 employees - seemed like a natural progression.

"As kids we used to go to the bakery at 11 o'clock, midnight; running around in the bakery trying to help the guys make bread, so that was kind of an introduction early on," he said.

Upon turning 21, Mr Morrison decided to travel Australia and ended up in Western Australia, working at the Hedland Pillbara Bakery.

It didn't last long however, and soon he was back at Schwarz.

"They didn't have a position for me, so they made a position for me," Mr Morrison said.

"I cleaned that factory from top to bottom, I just scrubbed walls until a place became available.

"It might have been my punishment for leaving in the first place!"

At Schwarz Mr Morrison worked for James and Darryl Schwarz; sons of the original owner Harold.

"Darryl did the bread and James did the pastry side; I switched between baking and pastry making," Mr Morrison said.

"I was always good at it; I picked things up pretty quickly."

Eventually Schwarz Bread Factory closed and Mr Morrison followed James Schwarz when he opened the Oven Door on Firebrace Street- a name that would become synonymous with quality pastries and delicacies.

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"I spent 18 years working for James, and he taught me everything he knew," Mr Morrison said.

Mr Morrison also branched out into teaching through the University of Ballarat and TAFE.

"I was tutoring apprentices from Geelong to Mildura; they all came to Horsham," he said.

Teaching was a challenge as some of the students had short attention spans, according to Mr Morrison.

"When you've got 16, 17, 18 year old boys and girls... after two hours they're exhausted," he said.

"It makes it hard, but it was enjoyable.

"We had to go to Melbourne on purchasing trips, acquiring machinery and equipment...after a while, about five years, they just decided to send the assessors out to the students."

In the meantime, Mr Morrison had made another big move - purchasing the Wimmera Cake Centre from former Horsham mayor, Jos Velthuis.

"Jos was at the age where he needed to retire so my wife and I bought the shop," Mr Morrison said.

"We were there for fifteen years, just concentrating on cakes; birthday cakes, wedding cakes... but we also did things like slices, bread rolls and pastries out the front. It was a complete bakery."

The Wimmera Cake Centre supplied cakes to bakeries, including Conway's.

"I supplied them with a lot of slices and donuts; other places we were supplying bread rolls from Murtoa to Natimuk," he said.

When it came time to close the Cake Centre, not everyone in the Wimmera was ready to let Mr Morrison retire.

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"Mick Conway came and asked me what I was going to do... he'd supported us for a few years, he was already buying our stuff so I said yes (to joining the team at Conways)," Mr Morrison said.

However Mr Morrison noted he had one request.

"I said I'd not make another birthday cake," Mr Morrison recalled.

"People still come in, after 11 years, asking for my cakes but I've got 10 grandkids and I make all their birthday cakes and that's enough cakes.

"There's one a month virtually, with all the little ones."

Mr Morrison hopes to spend more time with his grandkids now that he has retired for good.

He enjoys umpiring basketball - Mr Morrison became a Hornets life member in 2020 - and getting out on the jetski when he can rather than the motorcycles of the past.

"I'll keep going as long as the leg's keep going," Mr Morrison said.

"And if I fall off on the jetski I don't hurt myself too much...there's no skin off."

As for advice for aspiring pastry chefs, Mr Morrison said simply:

"It's an easy job. It gets technical and you work hard, but it's not that hard really so just sit back and learn," he said.

"Do it well and people love you."

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