A TASTE OF ARAN
With her Dunkeld bakery going from strength to strength, the Great British Bake Off star Flora Shedden shares some delicious recipes to tuck into at home
The Great British Bake Off semi-finalist Flora Shedden shares some top baking recipes to try at home
On your marks. Get set. BAKE.’ It’s a delicious line and the perfect excuse to bring out the mixing bowls for some Great British Baking, writes Rosie Morton. Sitting down to watch the Hollywood Handshakes, Star Baker Awards and Baked Alaska calamities of The Great British Bake Off has become something of an obsession for households up and down the country, and Scotland has certainly seen its fair share of amateur baking triumphs. Perthshire’s Flora Shedden – who left the tent a semifinalist at the age of just 19 – is unarguably one of the show’s greatest success stories.
‘I was very naïve,’ says Flora, recalling the first time she walked into the tent in 2015. ‘I didn’t have a huge amount of knowledge of the show. Suddenly you get flown into this world that is totally different, and before you know it people are watching and they all have opinions on you. No matter how much you anticipate that, it’s hard to fully grasp what it’s like.
‘We were given a brief for each challenge, maybe a week or two weeks before,’ she continues. ‘I travelled down every week. I had a very understanding boss at the time, thankfully. That’s when I was working in Frames Gallery in Perth. Lovely Hugh looked after me.’
After enduring Paul Hollywood’s steely-eyed gaze and being critiqued by none other than Dame Mary Berry, the undisputed Queen of Cakes, Flora set the wheels in motion for a career in the food industry. Going on to set up her own bakery, ARAN, in her hometown of Dunkeld, business has gone from strength to strength.
‘We were waiting a long time to open,’ she begins. ‘It was about ten months we were working on it. My style has changed a little bit – like everybody’s does as we evolve – and I’m getting close to how I want it to be. I always describe it as a work in progress.’
Based just across the road from ARAN on Atholl Street is Flora’s latest endeavour, LÒN, a new store that sells local produce, pantry items and fresh flowers. Done up in her instantly recognisable white, minimalist aesthetic, Flora has drawn considerable support from both locals and visitors, (she now has almost 50,000 followers on Instagram).
Launching two books in two years – Gatherings: Recipes for Feasts Great and Small (2017) and ARAN (2019) – Flora has put together some delectable recipes that her avid followers can enjoy recreating at home.
‘Gatherings was more the style that I tend to cook on a day-to-day basis, or for events,’ says Flora. ‘For ARAN, I decided quite early on that I wanted to take it over the course of a day, based on what you would bake and eat at each point throughout the day.’ From ‘elevenses’ to ‘twalhoures’, ‘sunrise’ to ‘the wee hours’, there is enough inspiration to see even the most enthusiastic baker through the next stint of lockdown loaves.
‘Just dive in,’ she says, giving her best advice to any baker keen to broaden their skills. ‘There are a lot of things that look more daunting than they really are. And don’t be afraid of mistakes. They happen to all of us all the time.’
Sharing some of her scrumptious recipes with Scottish Field, it’s time to don the pinnies – homemade shortbread, anyone?