This is a post I wrote for the lovely Melanie at Melanie's Food Adventures so thought I'd leave it here too. She asked me for a wee bit of background on Bad Girl and a Valentines recipe so here it is!
Sunday, 1 February 2015
Sunday, 29 June 2014
Best laid plans and Elderflower, lemon and coconut cake
It's been a fantastic Bad Girl weekend. We went to the Highland Gathering in Fortrose on Thursday. Selling at a market is great fun. You get to chat (about cake!) And see people's reaction to your cakes which is lovely but also really, really nerve racking!
It's always really difficult to judge how much to bake. Too much leftover and your profits are gone and too little and the stall looks, well a bit sad. I'm delighted to say for once we got it just right and sold out by the end of the evening. People said lovely things about the cakes and I went home grinning.
Next day I was up early baking a cake for velocity in Inverness. It's a lovely, lovely cafe and I'm delighted to have my cakes there. This week I took them a blueberry , lemon and thyme cake decorated with thyme leaves from the garden which makes me feel all sorts of domestic godessy!
Though it does look like I've decorated it with olives....
Saturday was a crasy busy with a christening cake for a lovely woman who's been a great friend and supporter of Bad Girl. I had a couple of issues with this cake which involved a few stressful moments and a mercy dash to tesco but we won't go into that...
I think it was all worth it though.
It's always really difficult to judge how much to bake. Too much leftover and your profits are gone and too little and the stall looks, well a bit sad. I'm delighted to say for once we got it just right and sold out by the end of the evening. People said lovely things about the cakes and I went home grinning.
Next day I was up early baking a cake for velocity in Inverness. It's a lovely, lovely cafe and I'm delighted to have my cakes there. This week I took them a blueberry , lemon and thyme cake decorated with thyme leaves from the garden which makes me feel all sorts of domestic godessy!
Saturday was a crasy busy with a christening cake for a lovely woman who's been a great friend and supporter of Bad Girl. I had a couple of issues with this cake which involved a few stressful moments and a mercy dash to tesco but we won't go into that...
I think it was all worth it though.
Straight from that and onto a 21st birthday cake (chocolate caramel with buttercream icing and handmade decorations. 12 hour day but off to bed happy.
Today I spent some time writing a new recipe because I'm making elderflower cordial tomorrow and I'm very excited! Seasonal and homemade? I'm delighted. (Sad isn't it?) So I came up with lemon, coconut and elderflower. Test run tomorrow...I'll keep you posted.
I have to say the highlight of the week was an unprompted message from a fellow baker who wrote to say hello and that she'd seen my page and liked the cakes and ethos. I was so touched by her taking the time to do that. Her stuff is amazing and I've admired it from afar so her note made my day.
OK, off to bed now, up at 6 to make sour cherry and ginger Florentines.
Sunday, 22 June 2014
Learning lessons, lime and pistachio and playing the long game.
So it's been five weeks since I gave up my job to concentrate on Bad Girl Bakery full time. In those 5 weeks I've planned, plotted, panicked and baked a lot of cake.
It's early days and on the whole I'm delighted with the way things are going. I've had orders, taught some cupcake classes and become a supplier to my favourite cafe in Inverness. (Thank you Velocity!) Not a bad start.
A few things came a surprise... And the fact they did was a surprise! I've been baking for long, long time. I've run cupcake bakeries, baked for cafes and restaurants and taught cake classes for years but somehow this is different.
It's nerve racking being a self employed! Hats off to all my friends who've been doing it for years. I'm also not a natural sales person. Feels like I'm selling myself as well as cake. I need to work on that. But spending my days baking the things I love, recipes I'm proud of and cakes I know taste good? Spending time developing new recipes? It's the best job ever.
The cake I love baking most is the three layer lime and pistachio. I can't take any credit for the flavour combination. The inspiration came from the Clandestine Cake Club, but the recipe I use is mine. It's the cake I bake when I want to show people what Bad Girl is all about. Mostly it's about flavour, it just tastes great! Light, moist, zesty and full of flavour. It's indulgent, unusual, fresh and pretty and I love it. I have a thing about cakes that look pretty but just taste of sugar. This cake is my argument against that and I'm really proud of it.
I'm not sure I'll ever tire of baking it. Might have to retire it at the end of the summer in favour of more autumnal flavours but until then, I'll be happy to bake it as long as folk want to eat it.
It's early days and on the whole I'm delighted with the way things are going. I've had orders, taught some cupcake classes and become a supplier to my favourite cafe in Inverness. (Thank you Velocity!) Not a bad start.
A few things came a surprise... And the fact they did was a surprise! I've been baking for long, long time. I've run cupcake bakeries, baked for cafes and restaurants and taught cake classes for years but somehow this is different.
It's nerve racking being a self employed! Hats off to all my friends who've been doing it for years. I'm also not a natural sales person. Feels like I'm selling myself as well as cake. I need to work on that. But spending my days baking the things I love, recipes I'm proud of and cakes I know taste good? Spending time developing new recipes? It's the best job ever.
The cake I love baking most is the three layer lime and pistachio. I can't take any credit for the flavour combination. The inspiration came from the Clandestine Cake Club, but the recipe I use is mine. It's the cake I bake when I want to show people what Bad Girl is all about. Mostly it's about flavour, it just tastes great! Light, moist, zesty and full of flavour. It's indulgent, unusual, fresh and pretty and I love it. I have a thing about cakes that look pretty but just taste of sugar. This cake is my argument against that and I'm really proud of it.
I'm not sure I'll ever tire of baking it. Might have to retire it at the end of the summer in favour of more autumnal flavours but until then, I'll be happy to bake it as long as folk want to eat it.
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