Donna MacCulloch has a habit of putting the people she knows into her cakes.
Not literally, of course. No, the owner of Oban tea and coffee shop Roxy’s connects the people in her busy life with the bakes she makes for her customers.
Nick the plumber? He’s a Victoria Sponge. That shinty player who came to the rescue when the coffee machine flooded the cafe? A honeymoon slice.
Now, with the help of a local children’s author, 63-year-old Donna has turned her cakes, and her many acquaintances, into a recipe book with a difference.
As well as revealing how to make the food that has made Roxy’s an Oban favourite for the past 15 years, the new book is a compendium of stories about the people that have touched Donna’s life.
And the cake they correspond to.
“Cake holds memories,” says Donna.
For example, Donna’s favourite story in the book is about her plumber Nick, who often pops into Roxy’s to do various odd jobs, and gripe about the difficulties of the day.
Nick’s favourite cake is Victoria Sponge, which in Donna’s mind means the two are irrevocably linked.
So, in the book, the story about Nick sits next to the Victoria sponge recipe.
“That cake represents to me Nick,” Donna says. “If I think of Victoria sponge, then that is Nick’s cake.”
Donna’s book, called Roxy’s Cake & Bake, went on sale in the Oban branch of Waterstones book sellers earlier this month for £20 a copy.
This week, Donna held a small launch party for the book in Roxy’s, inviting all of her friends and loyal customers from the area to celebrate the achievement.
Inside the book are 80 recipes including those for Nick’s favourite Victoria sponge and the shinty player’s honeymoon slice. But don’t expect a run-of-the-mill recipe book.
“I’m not teaching anybody to bake,” she says. “I’m just saying this is what we bake in Roxy’s. These are my cakes and this is a little story about them.”
‘I have a wee bit of dyslexia’
The fact that she has launched a book amazes Donna, who says she’s found writing difficult since her school days.
“I have a wee bit of dyslexia,” Donna explains. “Words don’t move or anything, but I think my grammar is very poor. So I wasn’t confident enough to put something like this together.”
She received invaluable help from award-winning children’s author Alan Windram, who both took the photographs and instilled in Donna the self-belief to tackle the project.
Alan’s wife Susan, who is editor of the Oban Times, also lent a hand. But though Donna concedes the book was a “team effort”, it is her own stories in her own words.
And at the centre of it all is the Oban coffee shop that Donna opened in 2007.
“I wouldn’t have been able to put this book together if it wasn’t for the people that touched our lives and have come into Roxy’s,” she says.
Donna’s book is available from Roxy’s in Oban or through Waterstones. Click here for a copy.
