One thing that Edinburgh does very well are beautifully curated deli food stores. You can find them all over the city, stocking artisan cheeses, fresh bread, store-cupboard essentials and often, local, independent brands. Stockbridge and Leith have a bountiful amount of such stores - Herbie of Edinburgh, I.J. Mellis (although this is definitely a cheese-monger first, deli second) and Valvona and Crolla to name but a few.
Back in 2021 a new store entered the scene: The Bear’s Larder. At that stage, I’d been working part-time for a bakery in Leith and was also floating the idea of running a micro-bakery from my tiny home-kitchen. Kit (one of the owners) approached me, asking if I might be interested in baking something for their opening day that was scheduled for a few months time, which really kick-started my tentative thoughts into action. From there, I sent a form to the council notifying them of my intention to bake from home, did a food safety course and set up a tiny business so I could bake for their opening. I agreed, in what now seems to have been a complete moment of madness to bake 36 hand-laminated twice baked almond croissants in my tiny, conventional oven. I should also say, that we have a very modestly sized, windowless tenement kitchen so space is somewhat limited, especially when you are baking that quantity of croissants, twice.
Miraculously, I did it, taking my almond-syrup-soaked-croissants filled with a brown butter frangipane and topped with toasted almonds in three large boxes on the bus to Bruntsfield (much to the amusement of the bus driver). It’s there I met Clare Fleck for the first time (who was taking photos of their store on opening day) and got to see Kit and Tim’s vision of the larder - a space full of deep mahogany wood tones, antique heritage green and old-world charm - not to mention the most exceptional selection of produce.
Kit and Tim sadly closed the doors to The Bear’s Larder earlier this year having relocated to London and so I wanted to write a piece in homage to the store and to our friendship. They have always been great supporters of our work - commissioning bakes and then being part of our Dulcify Journal Issue 01 family, as well as advertising with us. We also had the pure joy of attending their wedding at The Free Company a couple of years ago.
I loved the way Kit writes and thought I’d share a snippet from the conversation we had with him which features in our first issue.
‘I like to think of Joanna Lumley as the unofficial mascot for The Bear’s Larder. It all started innocently enough but I think I can honestly say I have more pictures of Joanna Lumley on my phone for social media than I do of my friends and family. She actually had a huge impact on how we approach the customer experience we are making in store. I came across an interview in which she gave the advice: ‘The secret, darling, is to love everyone you meet, from the moment you meet them. Give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Start from a position that they are lovely and that you will love them.’ This really influenced how we approached our customer service at the larder; we want each customer to have a memorable and positive experience.’
When I think back to my time baking for The Bear’s Larder in their opening year, there’s one bake in particular that springs to mind. I distinctly remember dropping it off and Kit’s eyes lighting up at the sight of it. It was a rose cake - a flavour I’d historically been nervous to engage with after seeing so many soapy horrors on The Great British Bake Off where contestants had been a bit too liberal with the rosewater. I’d seen a recipe however, in Thalia Ho’s Wild Sweetness and felt compelled to give it a go. She described the rose flavour as ‘present, but subtle, residing in the background, sighing, as it should.’ And the cake itself as ‘ethereal, pure and delicate’.
There have been many iterations of this rose cake since that first time - its made an appearance at birthday gatherings, house warmings and was one of the cakes I made for a friend’s wedding back in 2022. In that time, the recipe has transformed into my very own. It’s a recipe I use time and time again, one I know I can depend on and that tends to be a crowd-pleaser (which probably has something to do with the vast amount of butter, sugar and the elixir that is pistachio paste). It also feels quite sentimental to me - it marks a time when I was toying with re-training to become a pastry-chef and when I was still learning the craft of how to bake a good cake. I owe much of my cake-making skill to Connor Stewart, who took me under his wing when we worked for the same small-batch bakery. He patiently showed me how to use a turn-table, how to get an even layer of frosting and little tricks to improve a cake’s shelf-life. You can now find him baking with Darcie Maher at Lannan Bakery in Stockbridge, Edinburgh.
The rose cake
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