I am absolutely delighted to have been Awarded an MBE on the 2017 New Years Honours List . What a great start to the year and fantstic encouragement and support from our Monarch for enterprising , entrepeneurial , hard working ordinary folks like myself. Although the majority of us are just glad to be battling to make things better in our environment , its still a great honour to be recognised . This year at The Scottish Baking Awards we are hoping to put together a small committee of around 6 Professional people to drive forward what we really are , who we are and why we exist . We hope to put on a 2017 Star studded Award ceremony again this year and have a few great venues lined up already . In Scotland we have some of the best Artisan bakers i have ever met and we are continuing to find more and more every year in every corner of this small but brilliant country. Our Awards system is the only one of its kind in Scotland , Awarding , regulating and monitoring The Best Artisan bakers in the land. My belief is this and is simple - The best Bakers are the small, passionate , handcrafted bakers that are working away tirelessly behind the headlines and we are here to find them and promote them as best we can. This is a great Awards system for small independent business , Homebakers and even suppliers of Baking. If you would be interested in joining our small and professional commitee then please email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and lets make this Country stand alone in the Baking Industry . See you all very soon as Assessments start at the end of January .

So many Chocolates to choose from and all different prices and sizes , not to mention who is the best, world best, ethical  or multi award winning this year !!! Its a minefield out there for us Chocoholics ( Not experts by any manner of means ), so i decided to do a bit of research in the last couple of weeks . I think its fair to say that i have a fair amount of knowledge where Chocolate is concerned , however i decided to base my research on the consumer point of view and not the "Experts" point of view . The consumer after all is the one buying the Chocolates , is it not? In this modern world of social media , our producers of all types of food begin to believe in there own hype and media posts, to the point where the social media is the animal that sells the product whether it is any good or not . So my question one day was - Who actually does produce the Best Chocolates in Scotland at this moment in time  ?

I can honestly say that after consuming nearly 300 Chocolates in the last week or so , i am now an Expert !!

I chose to have the highend stores compete against the Artisan Chocolatiers that we hear the most about in 5 different categories as follows:

1. Price

2. Quality/ Use of Ingredients

3. Originality

4. Taste/Texture/Flavour

5. Presentation/ Packaging /Box

The Competing Scottish Stores and Artisan Chocolatiers were-

1. CocoaMo - Argyll

2. Kimbles - Glasgow

3. Waitrose - Helensburgh

4. Cocoa Black - Scottish Borders

5. The Highland Chocolatier - Perthshire

6. The Chocolate Tree - Edinburgh

7. Marks and Spencer - Aberdeen Store

These 7 are only a very few of the advertising Chocolatiers that exist in this country to date , but are the 7 i have picked out after my own research . It is by no means an extensive list but a personal list due to time restrictions .

All were marked out of a possible 25 points and there were some incredible Chocolates by all the entrants but hands down on every single category my outright winner by a million miles was the UK World Chocolate Master - Ruth Hinks from Cocoa Black . I have to say i have never tried Cocoa Blacks Chocolates before and have only had Cake and Hot Chocolate in the shop in Peebles . I was interested to see whether as a consumer the Bean to Bar Chocolate would be a better flavour and all round chocolate but quickly learned that making Chocolates taste this good is more than just sourcing a good bean . This type of Chocolate making requires a unique skill , understanding of flavours, textures and most importantly being able to combine all this with originality . I am a traditional Chocolate eater and absolutely despise seeing every little chocolate in a beautiful box uniformly cut to size to all look the same . When you open a box of Cocoa Blacks Chocolates they are all different to look at and to tast and the textures are quite unique. I was quite simply blown away by the subtle flavours ( of which you did not need a card to tell you what they were! )and the amazing different textures in each individual Chocolate . The colours , The design on each one and importantly to me , the freshness of each Chocolate . This is quite an achievement for online bought Chocolates to be as fresh as they were . The Packaging was simply black which is fitting to the name ( Although not the best packaging i researched ) and was overshadowed by the contents anyway . The sleeve on the box was the Chocolate selection card which i would have preferred to see in the box but this is quite simply not important when you know the Chocolates that you are about to experience. So this is my point really - The best marketing , most expensive,  branding , packaging and media hype does not neccessarily mean you are getting the best Chocolates . Incidentally out of the 7 i researched Cocoa Blacks were the 3 rd cheapest to buy per average Chocolate at £1-16 each. I honestly dont think my review on Ruth Hinks Chocolates can in any way express my pleasure in finding such a brilliant Master at the top of her Game . Keep up this standard no matter how big you become and you will have my backing all the way . Now onto my next challenge .  

I am absolutely delighted to finally announce the forthcoming Spanish Connection in the World of Artisan Baking .

I will now be dividing my time between My beloved Homeland of Scotland and my long love that is Spain .

Over the last few years i have seen the growth in Artisan Baking in pockets all over Spain and i am now delighted

to be a part of this enterprising future . In the next 12 months i have my work cut out as i will be starting a new

" Spanish Baking Awards " in conjunction with the existing successful " Scottish Baking Awards" . My eventual

aim will be to have a worldwide Awards system that includes all the main countries competing . The diverse and

amazing different styles of baking that exists in every country in such to be celebrated and learned from. Muchas

Gracias to all my Spanish counterparts that have helped me and supported me massively in even getting this far .

Watch this space folks . !! 

A Challenge was set to 5 Professional Bakers to produce mouthwatering Cakes and Pastries without any refined or unrefined sugars on the 24th April 2016 at Melanie's Tearoom - Craigard Tearoom in Helensburgh . Could it be done ? Over 300 pieces of Baking were eaten in just under 3 hours and the result was a resounding YES ! With the Government issuing a Sugar Tax, Melanie wondered if  the Baking industry could survive should sugar be taxed on all things sweet . The answer was a resounding YES . The Cakes and Chocolates produced by Master Baker Melanie , CocoMo Artisan Chocolatier , The Tea Jenny , Pastisserie Chef at Knockderry House Hotel and Kris at My Home Bakery In Hyndland were absolutely brilliant and proved that refined sugars are not necessary to produce mouthwatering Bakes. Now for our next challenge ???