Olive Magazine

We're very excited here at the Scarlett and the Spotty Dog Cakery as we're in Olive Magazine this month (October issue)! Attached below is a link to the picture in the article (the Spotty Dog looks exceptionally sweet!). The article is all about people who've 'ditched their day job and turned their passion into a profession' and I was one of the lucky 5 who got to talk to Emily Kerrigan about my business. Excerpts from the article are below but go and grab yourself a copy of the brilliant mag for loads of great recipes, restaurants and food related travel pieces!

The biscuit maker

Armed with a knack for baking and

a mascot in the form of her pet Jack

Russell, Rebecca Scarlett Hedley gave

up life as a lawyer to start Scarlett & the

Spotty Dog Cakery in 2010. Within

months, delis were selling out of the

old-fashioned goodies she’d baked in her

family’s Northumberland farmhouse.

1 Be true to yourself

I was 26 when I started my biscuit

business. It took nerve to concede

that after years spent qualifying, law

wasn’t the creative role I craved. If I’d

listened to doubters telling me the market

was saturated, I would have lost faith. But

I knew my brownies and flapjacks would

stand out because I used free-range eggs

from my hens and best-quality chocolate,

and wrapped my biccies with scarlet

ribbons and spotty-dog stickers.

2 Accept all offers of help

My family was fantastic. My

parents suggested I move home

and run the business from their country

farmhouse – I earned my keep helping

with DIY. My brother, an accountant,

offered gratefully received advice.

3Set achievable targets

I stuck to small goals – the first

was persuading my favourite local

café to sell my biscuits. Bit by bit, word

spread and the Spotty Dog made its way

onto deli shelves across Northumberland.

The ultimate dream is to open my own

shop – in the meantime I’m slowly

working my way further south.

4 Get online

The internet is a tremendous tool.

The biscuits are sold in cafés as a

direct result of contacts made on Twitter,

and two of my biggest stockists – loveyour

larder.com and notonthehighstreet.com

– are online retailers. I only wish I’d had

the confidence to approach them sooner.

5 Get the right kit

I struggled to meet demand with

my little Kenwood mixer but with

support from a brilliant small regional

business fund I’ve been able to invest in

an industrial-sized one. Everything else is

the same – me, my ethics and my dog

– except that these days, the baking sheets

are bigger and the order book a bit fatter

Olive Magazine October 2011

Scarlett and the Spotty Dog in the Journal

We hope you might have spotted us in our local paper, the Journal, very recently! Their Food and Drink Editor did a lovely piece talking about Great Taste Award winners in the area and also wrote a full page spread using several of my very own recipes. Links to the articles are attached below and there are going to be lots more exciting press coming up shortly (I'll keep you all posted!). 





The Stars of the 2011 Great Taste Awards
Summer Cakes and Tray Bakes

A Lovely New Stockist

I just wanted to bring you up to date with a lovely new stockist. We have started supplying the truly brilliant little village shop in Humshaugh, Northumberland. What’s special about this shop is that it’s run by the community for their community. A few years ago, the newsagents and general store was saved from shut down when the previous owners decided to retire following the controversial closure of the in store Post Office. The multi award winning shop is now run by enthusiastic volunteers from the village and sells a great range of products, from the essentials like bread and milk to truly local produce grown by keen gardeners from the village. The shop has such a lovely, bright and welcoming atmosphere-well worth a visit if you’re in the area (just don’t forget to buy one of my cakes....!

Great Taste Awards 2011

Just a quick update to share some very exciting news. I found out this week that we've been awarded 2 Gold Great Taste Awards in the 2011 GTA and we're absolutely delighted! We won the awards for our Proud to be Ginger Nuts and our Sugar Plum Fairy Christmas Pudding (which the judges described as 'excellent'). We are all really chuffed with these results and it feels like a big pat on the back!

Time for a Blooming Great Country Tea Party

We are hosting a Marie Curie Blooming Great Tea Party on Sunday July 10 which I'm very excited about. I'm going to take over the whole kitchen (again!) and turn it into my idea of the perfect Tea Room with lots of bunting, mismatched china and, of course, Cake! I can't wait!


I'm inviting lots of friends and family for, what I hope will be, one of many Pop Up Tea Room Events in The Secret Kitchen, in aid of some very worthwhile causes. 


I also have 4 spare places (because it's always fun to meet new people!) for anyone who would like to come along (it's free, but donations will be extremely welcome given the cause that we're supporting). So, do email me if you'd like to come along for an afternoon of Tea and Cake-come on, how can you refuse?!

American Pancakes with Strawberries and Preparations for a New Arrival

It has been a little while since my last post which I thought I should rectify today! Things have been so busy over the past couple of months that I can't believe that it's almost the middle of May. I'm slowly but surely increasing the number of lovely little places that I supply and orders are flooding in from all those fab customers from Not on the High Street-so thank you to all those who continue to support me!


Since the weather has turned so summery and bright, we've been outside doing lots of jobs-I spent most of yesterday with my brother collecting and chopping logs. Saturday was taken up with an equally fun project-planning the arrival of our newest additions: two little pigs! I am so excited as I have always wanted us to become a little more self sufficient than we are. We have the hens and the veg' plot, but I'd love to produce my own pork, so, after much discussion, we've decided to give it a go-pictures of the latest recruits to follow! But, I hope they look like these ones belonging to our friends.... 

When you're out and about in the fresh air, you need a good breakfast to set you up for the day. On Sunday, we had a plateful of American Pancakes with Strawberries and Greek Yoghurt and it kept us going all the way through to lunch-give them a go and let me know what you think

This recipe comes from BBC Food

Ingredients

·         135g/4¾oz plain flour

·         1 tsp baking powder

·         ½ tsp salt

·         2 tbsp caster sugar

·         130ml/4½fl oz milk

·         1 large egg, lightly beaten

·         2 tbsp melted butter (allowed to cool slightly) or olive oil, plus extra for cooking

·         Strawberries, Greek Yoghurt and some kind of Berry Jam to serve

1.    Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and caster sugar into a large bowl. In a separate bowl or jug, lightly whisk together the milk and egg, then whisk in the melted butter.

2.    Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture and, using a fork, beat until you have a smooth batter. Any lumps will soon disappear with a little mixing. Let the batter stand for a few minutes.

3.    Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and add a knob of butter. When it's melted, add a ladle of batter (or two if your frying pan is big enough to cook two pancakes at the same time). It will seem very thick but this is how it should be. Wait until the top of the pancake begins to bubble, then turn it over and cook until both sides are golden brown and the pancake has risen to about 1cm (½in) thick.

4.    Repeat until all the batter is used up. You can keep the pancakes warm in a low oven, but they taste best fresh out the pan.

5.    Serve with lashings of Strawberries, Yoghurt and Jam

Living North

We have had a very busy weekend at Living North Live. It has been great to meet lots of our customers and, hopefully, create lots of new fans!

Here's a picture of the stall-we've gone for a tea party theme-and we had lots of compliments on it and our banner which was painted by my very talented artist friend, Glyn.

We also had some great stall neighbours from Mmm Deli in Newcastle's Grainger Market (www.mmm-food.co.uk) and we bought lots of delicious food at the fair including some great Sicilian Olive Oil and Roasted Garlic Mayo from Mmm-mmm indeed!