Hello there,
Black Heart Bakery first opened under the name Jenny’s Pop Up Bakery in 2017, ‘popping up’ sporadically around Carndonagh and Culdaff for the next few years...
... having worked as a chef and baker in Donegal, Belfast and Barcelona for over 20 years, I decided it was time to give my own business a go.
Growing up in a small family run hotel, I was always surrounded by cooking, making and baking. Although at first I pursued a career in art and design, I found that I was spending more time in the kitchen experimenting with ingredients than where I should have been, in classes at art college! A change of career was on the cards.
I consider myself lucky to come from a long line of bakers. Strong, witty, independently minded women, including my great granny Minnie, who I was fortunate enough to have in my life until I was 7. I learned from an early age how to make her lovely rich apple tart, affectionately known at home as Granny Doherty’s Apple Tart.
Her daughter, my granny, Deirdre McGrory, baked beautiful wheaten breads and scones every week and I was always encouraged to help out and experiment. Granny’s younger sister, my great aunty Yvonne, who was always such a glamorous character to us wains, arrived up to Inishowen every Christmas with her delicious coffee cakes, dressed in a long camel coat and carrying a cigarette case!
In turn, Yvonne’s daughter Breezy and my mother Anne are both wonderful bakers too and have spent their lifetimes in the catering trade, running businesses, making wedding and birthday cakes and traditional Irish cakes and breads. I suppose a career in baking was kinda unavoidable!
Anyhow, about the cakes and bakes. I’m gonna get cheesy and sincere for a moment and say that I’m most happy when I’m in the kitchen baking cakes while listening to loud rock music. It’s not just a job to me, I love it so much! My cake style could probably best be described as rustic and a wee bit quirky, sorta like an edible collage. I’m a wee bit of a control freak so I mostly try to make all the cake components myself, from marshmallows, coulis and jams to caramels and curds. When cake making flavour and texture are my main focus, with decor coming a fraction of a second after that!
I love creating new flavours so expect new things to pop up over time.
So, there ye have it!