Steamed Puddings

Very shortly, I'm going to be launching my Gold Great Taste Award winning Sugar Plum Fairy Christmas Pudding. As we are very aware of our impact on the environment here at the Spotty Dog Cakery, we try to ensure all of our packaging is recycled/recyclable/from a sustainable source. So, all of our Plum Puds are packaged in re-usable plastic pudding basins so you can keep on using them to make some gorgeous puds over the rest of winter or even just use them for storage like any other tupperware box.

As promised, here is a Steamed Pudding recipe which is absolutely delicious.

Steamed Apricot and Autumn Spices Pudding

200g butter

200g brown sugar

3 eggs, beaten

250g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

3 tbsp milk

125 ml apricot jam

100g raisins

2 pint pudding basin (half the quantities for a 1 pint basin)

1. Lightly butter the pudding basin.

2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs beating well as you go.

3. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and ginger and mix into the batter. Stir in the raisins and then add the milk to make a dropping consistency.

4. Pour the jam into the basin and then spoon over the batter.

5. Cover the basin top with greaseproof paper, crease in the middle to allow for the pudding to expand and tie the paper securely to the basin with string. 

6. Place the pudding in a saucepan not much larger than the basin and pour hot water to around 3/4 of the way up the basin. Cover and simmer for 1 hour remembering to keep the water around the basin topped up. 

7. Turn the basin out onto a warm plate and serve with thick double cream. 

Make Time for Tea

Here at the Scarlett and the Spotty Dog Cakery, we love Tea! And when I say Tea, I don't just mean the drink, I mean the little baked treat of some description to go with it-you know, the piece of battenberg cake, the ginger biscuit or the slice of toast and jam. There's something about the 'something to keep me going' in the middle of the afternoon that feels like such a treat, but not so much of a treat that I won't have it every day. As my Mum would say, I need it to keep my energies up! 


But, I've noticed that here at Spotty Dog HQ, we may be in a bit of a minority. Lots of people, for different reasons (lack of time, guilt over 'snacking' are the most often quoted) don't have some kind of drink and a baked pick -me -up mid afternoon.  And I think this is a real shame. If you're at work or not, it shouldn't be impossible to spare 2 minutes to grab a drink and something cakey or biscuity to eat. Try it and (without wanting to sound corny) I promise you'll feel that life is just a bit better than it was before!

New Recruits

Here in the Cakery, we have some new recruits! Don't worry, we haven't grown so much that we've got a huge new workforce, just 2 new (furry!) product tasters called Hamish and Hettie.

They are both unbelievably cute (if a little naughty) and are providing hours of entertainment for us all. Very importantly, they both LOVE cake so they're pretty happy in their new home.

Christmas is Coming

I know it's only September and I know some of you may not want to think about Christmas yet but I learnt last year (my first Christmas in business) that Christmas prep' starts early in this game! Very early! So, this week I started making first batches of my Sugar Plum Fairy Pudding (which won a Gold Great Taste Award, remember!) 


I've already had pre-orders through for my puds, some from customers who loved them last year and some are for new customers, which is great. I am absolutely loving making the puds again-they have the most gorgeous smell as they cook away in the bottom of the Aga and they're relatively simple to make-all I need is my huge mixing bowl my Gran gave me and a spoon-very retro!


In other news, I've just been on a fabulous trip to York and enjoyed an amazing Afternoon Tea at the wonderful Bettys (see pictures of their lovely shop window below).

Fenwick of Newcastle

I'm very excited to announce that you can now buy a range of our products in the Food Hall at Fenwick of Newcastle! I'll be doing a tasting session to officially launch the products on Saturday 3 September and I'm  really looking forward to it as I absolutely love the Food Hall -it's full of some gorgeous things, including some really great products from other small, local producers. Come along and say hi if you're out and about in Newcastle tomorrow!

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