Meet Toni, she’s our Head Baker and was the very first person we every employed. I met Toni at my first job after moving to the Highlands. Not only is she the calmest, least flappable person I’ve ever met, she’s a natural baker and makes the most amazing biscuits, the neatest layer cakes and is the person I always bounce ideas off.
Toni is absolutely my right hand woman (and my work wife!) but her official title is Head Baker. Her main job is the day to day running of the bakery including running the oven scedule and allocating jobs to the bakery team to make sure everything we need for orders, wholesale and shop is baked, cooled and finished on time. She’s also part of our management team who work with Douglas and I on developing the business and forward planning.
We asked her a few questions to give you an idea of what her job is like.
What did you do before this?
I started off my career in hairdressing working for Mr Teasy Waesy in Birmingham but my path changed and brought me to the Highlands where I brought up my two boys. I got into waitressing to fit around my boys which led to several catering jobs over the years.
What made you decide to become a baker?
I met Jeni when she came to be my manager at the Old School. I grew to love baking and Jeni taught me everything I know. She approached me about coming to work at her new venture and the rest is history!
What’s a typical day at work for you?
For me, it’s usually an early start baking our shop display. It’s my favourite time of the day: calm before the storm. Then it’s a busy day of managing our bakery team’s workload and making sure everything is perfect as we get creative baking for the shop and private orders and getting our wholesale orders done ready to be delivered across the Highlands.
What’s the best thing about your job?
For me feeling at home working alongside people I admire. Seeing people’s faces as the enjoy eating something we have baked and hearing all the lovely feedback. Not forgetting Douglas’ much appreciated first coffee of the day, definitely a moment worth savouring!
What’s your favourite Bad Girl Cake?
Gosh, that’s hard but I would say anything with chocolate or caramel. Our millionaire shortbread or tiffin is definitely up there.
What’s your favourite thing on the Savoury Menu?
Everyone knows tuna mayo and red onion sandwich is my go to but I’m rather partial to the triple cheese toastie. What’s not to like!
If you fancy becoming a Bad Girl or Boy…
We have a team of twenty lovely, hardworking and dedicated Bad Boys and Girls. We have no jobs at the moment, but if you fancy joining us, follow us on Facebook or Instagram as we always post jobs there. You absolutely don’t need to be a trained baker (though trained bakers are welcome too!) What’s really important for us is that you‘re nice, hard working, positive and interested in cake, good food and working with a lovely bunch of people. Bonus points if you’re happy and smile a lot.
We provide all the training you need. we put our bakers through professional qualifications, research tips and recipe development projects and in such a big team, theres definitely scope for growing in your job.
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