Annie’s Delicious Bakes, featuring Annie’s Pantry opens at Cuil Park, Bridge of Dee (right beside the A75) on Saturday 29th November 2014. Their hampers are now available to order and could be the perfect Christmas gift for a friend or member of your family.
After toying with the idea for several years Sarah-Jane Allsopp decided to hang up the epaulettes of her police uniform and put on her bakers apron full time. Annie’s Delicious Bakes was born.
Over the past few months Sarah-Jane and her mother Olivia Armstrong have been attending farmers market, fairs, show and producers events around the region with their selection of amazing home made cakes, bakes quiches and pies.
“I was brought up around a family of cooks. My mother, my aunties and especially my Nana (Annie, the businesses name sake) were all prolific cooks and home bakers. From any age I was stood along side them with a wooden spoon and bowl learning how it was done. At the time I didn’t think anything of it, but when I left home to go to university I found it really strange that the majority of my friends had no idea how to cook things from scratch, what ingredients were in the tins and jars that they purchased or how to bake. The older I got, the more I realised how lucky I was to have had these skills handed down to me. ‘
When she returned home and settled down Sarah-Jane began to help her mother produce a few cakes and quiches for friends and family as a hobby. ‘We were amazed at the positive feedback we received – people couldn’t get enough of our produce and it began to dawn on us that their was a gap in the market for good old fashioned rustic, home baked food.’
‘Having strong ties to the local farming community, I have always been a passionate believer in sourcing local produce. As the business progressed I met a whole host of fabulous producers from around the region and the most natural thing to do was to use their products in my own recipes. From eggs, cheese, milk, butter to meats, jams, peanut butter and honey everything is local to Dumfries and Galloway.’
Annie’s products have gained such a regular following that people naturally began to ask where they could buy them. ‘Stockists like Brambles Deli in Kirkpatrick and TH Carson’s butcher in Dalbeattie have been fantastic supporters of ours because they understand that we we produce quality food and that our ethos is all about supporting the local producers.’
‘But, the time has now come where we need an outlet for our full range of products. It’s always been a dream to open some kind of food establishment and now here we are.’
The shop at Bridge of Dee, Castle Douglas provides customers with all the amazing delights that Annie’s delicious bakes has to offer, but in the spirit of keeping things local we are also opening up our old fashioned pantry and providing an outlet for the wealth of amazingly diverse food products that this area had to offer.
Annie’s Delicious Bakes, featuring Annie’s Pantry opens at Cuil Park, Bridge of Dee (right beside the A75) on Saturday 29th November 2014
