Bake Off star Flora Shedden has admitted that she is having trouble naming her new bakery.
The 20-year-old, who was a runner-up in the 2015 series of the hit BBC contest, has taken over an old High Street newsagents in Dunkeld, which she hopes to have fully renovated by the spring
In a column for a national newspaper she revealed that she had been toying with a Gaelic name for her venture – including translations of “bakery” and “flour” – to tie in with the town’s reputation as the gateway to the Highlands.
She said: “I have always been useless at naming things; my family previously had a chicken called Goose and now have a cat called Dog. I dread the day I might be required to name a child.
“A lot rides on the name of the bakery. Marketing, of course, is vital, but so is everyone being able to spell it – and say it. I spent some time researching various Scots Gaelic translations, and immediately rejected 90% of my findings. ‘Let’s go to Bèicearachd!’ isn’t a phrase that rolls off the tongue, is it?
“There were a few four-letter options I did like. “Aran”, which means bread, has a lovely Scottish feel to it. “Flùr” can be translated as both flour and flower (appropriate for a Flora).
“I am drawn to Gaelic as Dunkeld is a village often described as the gateway to the Highlands. I want to embrace that.
“The first impression should be a welcoming one, and what is more welcoming than Scottish hospitality?”
She added: “Still, I am finding it hard to commit to one idea. A lot of them, some good and others very bad, have emerged since last spring when this bakery idea first came about.
“Maybe by the time it opens in May this year I will have settled on a few coherent letters above the door.”
She also suggested that fans could make suggestions on her Twitter feed, with one already leaping to the challenge with “All You Knead”.
Since featuring on the show, Flora has published her first book, Gatherings. She signed with publishers Mitchell Beazley, part of the Octopus Publishing Group, after a scrum to secure her signature.
Flora put her St Andrews University studies on hold to concentrate on writing the book, which was released in hardback in January.
