Bad Girl Bakery: The Cookbook

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Oh, that’s tough! I guess I’d say complicated doesn’t necessarily mean better. Simple recipes made with great ingredients are my favourites. For me baking is about trying to exceed peoples expectations and making it taste as good as it looks. To try those muffins for yourself, scroll down for a preview from the book, including the full recipe. (We’ve made them and can confirm they are truly top class muffins!) Q&A with Jeni Iannetta Pudding? That is tough. I haven't decided yet. It will generally be something chocolatey. I am not big on Christmas pudding.

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 …" Food was always a big deal in the family and she attributes her love of baking entirely to her big sister. As a student (English degree from Dundee University) she worked part time at Dundee Rep theatre in the box office, she said, "after my last exam, I started my job in the marketing department the next day." The Arts 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

The business has grown in a way the couple didn't anticipate and she said, "we have a lovely team of really talented bakers and chefs. The award-winning businesses has been built up by Douglas Hardie and Jeni Iannetta who have developed an outlet in Inverness within the Victorian Market. Q: What is the single bit of advice you would give to home bakers who want to up their baking game? Jo Murray, Victorian Market manager, said: “We have been in discussion with Douglas and Jeni of Bad Girl Bakery since the early conception of the hall development and I am delighted that they see the value and potential of this new food and drink destination.

Our general manager was in Inverness and she walked into Waterstones and there was a big display of our books and she took a picture and sent it to me and I opened the picture and basically screamed!” Jeni says: “But those things have to stand on their own as well. If people are choosing cakes from the display, it doesn’t matter if they are vegan or gluten-free or not, it’s just whether they like the look of them.” Jeni just laughs hard when I say to her that now there’s a book, are there any plans for a TV series?“I still can’t believe we’ve got a book, let along anything else! The Bad Girl Bakery book with over 100 recipes.Then with a few turns of your spoon it turns into this silky, smooth and chocolatey mixture. To this day, it gives me huge pleasure watching it transform. 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. 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. Jeni always has a showstopper, she said, "even if you are not going to eat it, it will bring you to the display and make you go, wow.

I started Bad Girl Bakery because I love to bake. I’m definitely more of a cake baker than a sourdough baker. While I understand the science of baking (I can laminate with the best of them!) that’s not what interests me. The cakes we bake are far closer to home baking than multi-step process baking. That’s what we bake in our bakeries and that’s what I want to share here. Our approach to savoury food is exactly the same. Great ingredients and no fuss recipes with hints and tips for maximum flavour.I love sprouts. My sister's recipe – I can't take any credit – is to boil the sprouts, fry them with some lardons, then add lemon, cream and almonds. They taste incredible. In our house they are called "Christmas sprouts". We will definitely be having some of those. 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. She explains, "it is a huge agricultural show, and normally it is incredibly difficult to get a stall."

It won't be turkey. Probably beef with all the trimmings – pigs in blankets and roast potatoes. We are quite traditional at Christmas. Not in a million years! I did an English degree and got a job in arts marketing straight after graduation. I did a marketing qualification while working at the BBC, then moved into theatre and visual arts marketing, and imagined that would be my career until I retired. I applied for a baking job on a whim (totally unqualified) and got it. That decision changed everything. Jeni said, "she took a huge chance on me because I had never baked for a living before. She is amazing, everything I have learned about quality, not cutting corners and giving people a chance all came from her." 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."

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Yes, very much. My oldest sister always hosts family Christmas and before I moved up to the Highlands that is where I would spend it. She is a fantastic cook and does beautiful Christmas spreads and makes it all look effortless. 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. We bake by hand in the same way you would at home (our mixers are just a bit bigger). Bad Girl Bakery started as a wee, at-home bakery (where 6 cakes a week was busy) and now we produce tens of thousands of portions of cake a month, and serve cake, coffee, breakfast and lunch, 7 days a week with a staff of 25.