I keep getting sent photos of my recipes people have tried, which is fantastic. My aunt has done 10 already. She has a baby due in December, and she’s just launched her third cookbook, Supper: Recipes Worth Staying in For. It seems that she might be a carpe diemkind of person.

But, rather than move to London to pursue a career as a celebrity baker, Flora returned home to Dunkeld, Perthshire, to open her very own artisan bakery. Flora explained: “I don’t think telly would have been the one for me. It was fun when I was doing it, but I really struggled with the attention and kind of ‘nowhere to hide’ side of Bake Off. I’m also going to be doing wedding cakes. I did eight over the summer for families and friends and it’s become a real passion.” However, don’t ask her who she wants to win the latest series of The Great British Bake Off, which has its finale coming up on November 15. Once the bakery is up and running, I wouldn’t say no to another book, perhaps on the building of the bakery itself and some of the new recipes I am planning to try on customers.” Read More Related Articles

She concedes that she’s in the privileged position of being in the main street of a historic village which is popular with tourists with no large supermarkets or fast-food chains to dilute her influence. The local independent butcher, smokehouse, deli and whisky shop are hardly going to do that. In fact, she believes she is part of wider grassroots movement in Scotland that is being fed – and in turn consumed – by social media. Paying a visit to our dear friend Flora Shedden is always attended by a sensation of warmth, the kind of familiarity that we more often associate with coming home. The journey to her hometown of Dunkeld in Scotland may be a long way from the well-travelled road to our own, but the feeling of being ushered into open arms is similarly suffused into every thoughtful element of her enchanting Aran Bakery, as well as in the irresistible Lon, her lifestyle store, too. To cross their threshold is to step into a complete world where the generous and abundant thread that yokes it all together begins and ends with Flora herself.

Last week, Scots clan chief Lady Claire Macdonald, Irish TV chef Rachel Allen and Yorkshire cook Frances Atkins were photographed attending screen tests in London with judge Paul Hollywood, sparking rumours they are to be the replacements for Mary Berry. I will be doing most of the cooking but I will be employing a full-time baker and my mum will be lending a hand. It’s going to be a real family affair. There’s quite a contentious discourse about veganism. I think it’s doing more damage to the planet than eating dairy from the farm 20 miles down the road." My sister Hebe is doing neuroscience at Glasgow University so I get to be a student again when I visit her.”Put the sliced onions into a deep saucepan with the vinegar and sugar and cook over a medium-low heat for about 15 minutes. You are looking to soften the onions, then almost caramelize them. There should be no excess liquid in the pan.

But, as the most wholesome show on TV has grown in popularity – last year the series attracted a peak of more than seven million viewers per episode – so too has the ambitions of the home bakers. And success in the famous white tent can result in more than just a sweet treat.Using a sharp serrated knife, slice the loaf into thin biscuits. Arrange on a large baking tray. Return the biscotti to the oven for its second bake. You are looking for the biscuits to dry out at this stage, though they will colour a little too. Bake them for 10 minutes before turning them over and returning to the oven for a further five minutes. Remove from the oven once crisp and allow them to cool completely before serving with a good selection of cheese and antipasti, or with the above soup and some nice salted butter. They will keep in an airtight container for a month. The following day, heat the oven to as high as it will go. If you have a cast-iron pot, place this in the oven at the same time. If not, use a sturdy baking tray, again heating it up along with the oven. In Aran, she writes: “Sugar gets a bad rep, as does gluten, sadly. But my principles remain the same throughout this bizarre time. Use proper and honest ingredients and think of food as a source of fuel and satisfaction, not as something to fear or discuss negatively.” I know there’s a huge focus on doing that and lot of people feel pressure to move. There was a lot of chat and a fair amount of pressure to do that, and capitalise on Bake Off, but I think I’m probably just a bit stubborn. I was happy where I was previously, and I didn’t want to jump on that bandwagon.”

I’ve had lovely messages from my fellow contestants on Bake Off including Nadiya Hussain and Mat Riley. She said: “I’ve been working on the book for so long that when it was put into my hand it felt very surreal. Thankfully, everybody I know seems to like it. She said: “I was sad when I heard it was moving to Channel 4 and Mary Berry, Mel and Sue would be leaving but I suppose I put it down to a seven-year itch. We do our absolute best to source as many local ingredients as possible, and always encourage customers to come through the door with any of their own goods. One day, we received a wonky squash from a local gardener and a couple of jars of Birnam honey from a lovely man called Mark, and we knew we had to combine them. This is a mash-up of the only three recipes I could find that contained more butternut squash than sugar (something I think is important when cooking with vegetables) and the end result is quite unique. Not dissimilar to a tea cake, the crumb is very soft, and perfect with a cup of Lady Grey tea. Flora “tried to leave a couple of times” but always returned. She studied architecture in Edinburgh for a year after school, then quit when she realised she didn’t want to practise it. She also lived in St Andrews for a year post-GBBO. Her plan had been to study history of art and maths there, but instead she wrote her first book, Gatherings: Recipes for Feasts Great and Small. Nigella Lawson described the recipes as having “the authentic sense of coming out of a real home kitchen”. It was an astute observation.Everything processed is why we’ve lost touch with fresh food. E-numbers, additives, colourants, preservatives and so on are all man-made and, of course, they’re going to cause damage and health problems. Naturally occurring ingredients are hardly to blame.” Although the format isn’t going to be the same, it doesn’t mean it isn’t going to be good. I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with.” Read More Related Articles Even if it wasn’t planned, Bake Off certainly did boost Flora’s career – although the now 24-year-old walked a very different path to her cooking contemporaries. Yes, the ubiquitous book deal followed, and her debut collection of recipes, Gatherings, was published in January 2017.