Bad Girl Bakery: The Cookbook

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You go in every morning with a blank canvas and a fresh start. There is something really simple about it. Fiona Pratt, who offered me my first job as a baker, instilled the importance of not cutting corners and using good quality ingredients. It doesn't have to be the most expensive ingredients but aim for the best quality you can afford.

I wrote Bad Girl – with Darren – and I got help with recipe testing from our head baker Toni Davis and baking manager Rachel Knox. It was something the team worked on and I’m really proud of the fact we worked together and achieved that. Some books take up residence in your home, others in your heart, and Bad Girl Bakery most vehemently belongs in the latter category. I love everything about this book: its warmth, its down-to-earth voice, and its heavenly recipes. It’s a very real joy, and what a pleasure and honour it is to share it with you.The Muir of Ord bakery owners said they were delighted to be part of such an “exciting development” as the company continues to expand.

Measure the milk into a jug, then add the melted butter, eggs, maple syrup, vanilla and mashed banana and mix with a fork. Pour this over the dry ingredients and mix gently (on low if you’re using a stand mixer) until the ingredients are nearly combined – you want to be able to see a bit of dry flour in the mix. Give it a final stir using a spatula so it’s only just combined.

Though we no longer wholesale, we have provided cakes all over the Highlands and clients include all of the National Trust in North West of Scotland, The Caledonian Sleeper, Scottish Canals and other cafes across the Highlands. Being located in the Highlands is the cherry on the top for their business, "if you like something up here, people will travel so we have folk who make a hundred mile round trip to get cake and think nothing of it. Her recipe for success includse flavour combinations, textures, baking seasonally and prioritising local produce where she can. Baking is generally the same combination of ingredients, so if you've got good quality eggs, butter and cocoa, then the chances are your bake will be better. The most important thing for us was doing the right thing for our amazing Bad Girl Muir of Ord Team and we’re delighted to say that all the front of house team will be joining us in inverness and all the production team will carry on baking in Muir of Ord to support the other parts of the business.

They won the best stall, and Jeni explains how she prepared, saying: "I'd baked more cake than she had ever baked, but sold out on the preview evening so I went home and baked all night for the next day. People don't treat themselves as often as they used to, and are more health conscious so when they choose a treat they absolutely want it to count, it is not something they have every day." Chocolate chip cookie millionaire shortbread. Picture: Matthias Kremer Photography The book offers hints that the spirit of experimentation is in the lifeblood of the Bad Girl Bakery and that the many original ideas and exciting tweaks on classic basic recipes you find in the book create the environment to keep the business evolving.

Bad Girl Bakery

We do spend a lot of time on research, so in the winter when things are quiet all the bakers are given a research project Did you come up with new recipes for this book or will we discover how to make some of our delicious favourites? She adds, "if I hadn't have taken that chance, I wouldn't have had any of these opportunities. It gave me the confidence to produce on that sort of scale and it was just so exciting."