Bad Girl Bakery: The Cookbook

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That one event proved to be a huge jumping point for the business, allowing her to open Bad Girl Bakery Cafe, Muir of Ord, and led her to supply cake to The National Trust for Scotland and the Caledonian Sleeper service. Taking a chance She explains, Douglas is a major part of the business,"that man loves a spreadsheet, he kind of frees me up to do the things I really love." Bad Girl Bakery Jeni Iannetta with husband and business partner Douglas. Picture: Matthias Kremer Photography Pudding? That is tough. I haven't decided yet. It will generally be something chocolatey. I am not big on Christmas pudding.

Q: In the book, you describe your approach to baking as “Let’s try this and see what happens.” Does that always work, or have there been some kitchen disasters? I was living in Dundee and working in St Andrews and I met my now husband who lived in Muir Of Ord and I moved up to be with him and his little boy. The Muir of Ord bakery owners said they were delighted to be part of such an “exciting development” as the company continues to expand.One thing I love baking is a brownie. It isn't a complicated mixture but there is a moment when you are mixing everything together and it looks a bit grainy and split. You think: "This is never going to come together". It's about generous fillings and hidden surprises, so it doesn't feel like a waste of calories or taste just of sugar. I still can't believe that I bake cakes for a living and people pay me for them." Q: What is the single bit of advice you would give to home bakers who want to up their baking game?

Jeni said: “To be honest with you, when Emily Dewhurst at Kitchen Press approached us and asked if we wanted to write a book with her, we were blown away. We continue to get such a lot of support and we absolutely couldn’t have opened the business without the help from all the people we did and we are incredibly grateful,” added Jeni. 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. Everyone’s got someone in their family who, when you reach for a sweet thing, they go ‘Oh, bad girl!’.All classes and courses will go ahead in Muir of Ord and the Inverness end of the business is "unaffected and open as usual".

I know it doesn’t sound very exciting, but there is a moment where you’ve got your melted butter chocolate and sugar. Your eggs have gone in and it looks like a bit of a mess and you go ‘Is this right?’ She had accidentally fallen into a successful career in arts marketing at; Dundee Rep, Scottish Opera, Theatre Royal, BBC Scotland resources, before returning to her home city working at Dundee Contemporary Arts. But Emily was very funny and said ‘You will be amazed!’ and of course within 10 minutes we had rattled off a hundred … trying to find a nice balance between flavours, chocolate versus non-chocolate, complicated versus simple and it all just came together. It was one of those moments when you think about your work life balance and I realised I could do something about it, so I gave it all up to bake cakes for a living" BakingI still feel that flutter of joy. Even as far into my career as I am, I can't believe I get to bake cakes for a living and people buy them. Her recipe for success includse flavour combinations, textures, baking seasonally and prioritising local produce where she can. You go in every morning with a blank canvas and a fresh start. There is something really simple about it. The Muir of Ord cafe’s last trading day was yesterday.This might feel sudden, but it’s been on the cards for a long time and we really have exhausted all the options. Most importantly, doing it now secures jobs for our all our team." Douglas Hardie and Jeni Iannetta of Bad Girl Bakery are mothballing the Muir of Ord cafe but say operations in Inverness remain unaffected.

She is looking forward to the book launch in November which features over a hundred of her recipes, but she said, "I don't feel we are giving our secrets away, I've loved the process but I'm also petrified." There’s a mixture of both. We spend a lot of time researching and developing new recipes and some were developed specifically for the book. There are lots of old favourites too: recipes we’ve been baking from the beginning, like the cupcakes, layer cakes and brownies. There’s also a whole chapter dedicated to savoury and a chapter with ideas for leftover cake. Every single recipe in the book is sold in the bakery. Jeni along with her team plan the day's cake display meticulously. The idea is to get a good range of cakes and bakes, she said, "we work really hard on creating a feeling of abundance, and something super indulgent and something a wee bit plainer." Keeping it simple She explains, "it is a huge agricultural show, and normally it is incredibly difficult to get a stall." To begin with she turned the opportunity down, but changed her mind, she said, "I stayed up for three days straight baking and got about six hours sleep."

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Everything is made by hand in small batches although she is no longer the only baker, she works with a small team. The Savoury Chapter has some delicious ideas, but immediately you mention it, Jeni adds: “I can’t take the credit for all that. I have an amazing head chef called Darren Campbell and when I wanted to revamp our savoury menu, I wanted it to match the sweet menu. We sat down and I talked about the kind of things we wanted on the menu and he came up with some amazing things, so credit to him for a lot of the things in that chapter. Our bakes are big, indulgent and generous. The name gently pokes fun at people who are disapproving of treats. Everyone has someone in their life who, if you reach for a sweet treat, they will say: "Oh, you bad girl …"