Bake Off’s Flora back at cafe where it all began
Celebrity baker Flora Shedden is taking a step back in time tomorrow when she returns to the book shop cafe where the public first got a taste of her talent, writes Gordon Currie.
Two years ago, the Bake Off star was a part-time waitress at The Watermill in Aberfeldy but this weekend she goes back as a TV and radio star and one of Scotland’s best known bakers.
Flora admits she spent “too much time chatting” when she was a waitress at the award-winning book shop but she did love trying out her home baking on the customers.
She said she is looking forward to going back to the Watermill - recently named one of the world’s best bookstores - to sign copies of her first book Gatherings.
“I worked there for a year and it is an amazing place, with the bookshop and gallery and cafe. I would always go and have a look at the cook books on my lunch break. I still go back regularly for a coffee and a cake. But I never thought
Flora is at the Watermill tomorrow. Pic by Graeme Hart I would have my own cook book on sale there and be asked to go back and sign copies.
“I’m looking forward to going back on Saturday and I’ll definitely be taking in some of my cakes for people to try.
“What happened with the Great British Bake Off was such a surprise and you just couldn’t factor it in to any five year plan. It was just one of those
Crieff’s draughts board is likely to feature things and I have kept running with it.”
Watermill owner Kevin Ramage said: “We are delighted to be welcoming Flora back. She was very popular with the customers when she was here maybe because she spent so much time chatting to them.
“We followed her closely when she was on Bake Off because we already knew how talented a baker she was. We maybe didn’t expect it to take off the way it has for her, because she told us she planned to go to university.
“However, she’s had great opportunities to pursue her love of baking as a career and we are sure she’ll make a great success of it.”
Flora is currently working on the finishing touches to her first commercial venture, with the opening of a bakery cafe in her home town of Dunkeld scheduled for later this year.
She described Gatherings as “cooking for people in a fairly casual way, easy entertaining.”
She said: “I wanted it to reflect how I like to cook and how I like to present things.”