You know you’re getting old when doctors and police officers look like children. That theory also applies to bakers.
The Babyfaced Baker, aka Rhiain Gordon, has just opened her own pop-up shop - hopefully, soon to become permanent - at 341 Leith Walk, Edinburgh.
She is one of those lucky fresh-faced types.
“I’m 26-years-old but regularly get mistaken for being 10 years younger”, says Rhiain, who originally came up with the Babyfaced Baker name for her blog. “The list of wild things I get ID’d for seems to be growing. This week it was permanent markers”.
This youthful baker may not be able to buy a Sharpie, but she now has a very grown-up bricks and mortar business. That’s thanks to customer demand, as, over lockdown, her social media following increased, and the list of businesses she was supplying rose steadily to 17. (You can still buy her wares from these places, which include The Bear’s Larder, The Source Coffee, The Pantry, Cowan and Sons, Cairngorm Coffee, Union Brew Lab, and Little Fitzroy).
Her first proper premises, which used to be a hairdresser and has been refurbished with help from Rhiain’s mum and dad, will stock some of the cakes that you’ve seen in these shops and cafes. There will also, temporarily, be coffee provided by The Drip.
You can use it to wash down one of her specialities, like the chunky stuffed cookies, which have gooey middles filled with Nutella, Jammie Dodger jam or melted peanut butter cups. And then there are the sugar-dusted cruffins (a croissant muffin hybrid), in varieties including peanut butter and jelly. There are plenty of vegan options, but definitely no diet ones.
“There will be buns, brownies and stuffed cookies daily with some cruffins towards the weekend. The cookies always go down a storm but also who can say no to a big fluffy bun?”, says Rhiain, who will open her bakery Tuesday-Saturday from 7.30am-3pm. “My favourite thing to do is experiment with new flavours so I’m using this opportunity to let my creative side run wild. Expect some bakery exclusives over the next few weeks - keep an eye on my Instagram”.
She has developed quite a following over social media (Instagram @babyfacedbaker), partially because of her gratuitous close-ups of, for example, a berry cheesecake bun, with icing dripping down the side, or a cross-section of a Biscoff millionaire’s shortbread.
“I originally thought being a wholesale baker would be quite lonely but the amount of interaction I get from heroes over social media is wild,” says Rhiain, whose love of baking was sparked when she was a child and made pancakes with her granny. ”I chat with so many people who’ve found my bakes in different cafes across the city. One of my favourites has been Elaine. She’s used her pregnancy to take on what I call The Great Edinburgh Cookie Trail. She’d watch my Instagram stories, find out which place stocked my newest cookie flavour and take herself and bump for a walk to get it. I’ve enjoyed chatting with her and can’t wait for her wee one to be able to come visit too!”
It seems that even her future customers are baby-faced.
