The woman behind Scotland's best croissant opens 'queue-worthy' bakery
An award-winning Scottish bakery has moved from a home kitchen to a new shop, and there have been massive queues for the bakes.
A Scottish bakery which won Scotland’s best croissant award in 2024 has opened its first shop.
Maple Leaf Bakery won the inaugural award when owner Rebecca Slade, was a small, home-based business supplying a range of coffee shops in Glasgow.
Now Ms Slade has opened the doors to her first bakery shop, which is located just over the new Govan Partick bridge in Water Row, Glasgow.
Customers queued over the opening weekend (20-22 February) and the bakery sold out of all pastries and breads.
Maple Leaf Bakery started as a wholesale and custom-bake business in April 2021 with Ms Slade going on to supply coffee shops such as 1841, Toro, No 40, Thomson's Coffee in the Gallowgate, Good Coffee Cartel, and BAM.
Ms Slade, said her love of baking came from her grandmother, who made everything “from scratch”.
She said: “It feels like cooking and baking have always had an important presence in my life. In my childhood, my grandmother lived with us and she would make meals, desserts and bread all from scratch on a daily basis. Both the preparation of food and the enjoyment of it felt like an important shared and communal activity.”
While baking was something Ms Slade grew up with, it wasn’t until the pandemic that she turned it into something more. She said: “During the pandemic, I was really struggling with my health and was off work for a while.
“I find it very difficult not to be busy, so I enrolled in an online pastry course. It was great - I learned so much from it but it was also a lovely community of bakers from within and outside of the UK that would have weekly Zoom Q&A sessions.
“I took the opportunity to post photos of my bakes, while also learning how to use a proper camera, on Instagram as a mark to document my progress and have some fun creatively. I was approached by Gill, the former owner of Toro (a great Southside coffee institution) as to whether I could provide wholesale supply, and the bakery kickstarted from there.
“I set up the business and before I knew it, there were a lot of local businesses getting in touch. I felt like every week was a steep learning curve.
“By that point I was back working part-time at the NHS too, but after six months running the bakery alongside my day job, I decided to take the leap to doing the bakery full time. I’m very grateful to Gill and the other business owners that ordered from me and have supported me - there’s a really lovely community of independent business owners in Glasgow and I’m thankful to be part of it.”
Originally from Canada, Ms Slade’s mother was English so there were British influences in the food she ate at home. Coming to Scotland for university, Ms Slade said she has a real love of baking with the country’s revered summer berries.
She added: “I love the produce you get in Scotland’s spring and summer.
“I lived up in Dundee for a few years and on the way back from Fife on a particularly sunny day, I noticed a sign for a van with fresh strawberries just off a roundabout - I swear they were the best tasting berries I’ve ever had.
“But in general, getting to go foraging for berries, brambles and wild garlic during spring and summer is such a favourite thing for me.”
As for Maple Leaf Bakery, it was never her intention to open a shop and she’s been overwhelmed by the sellout success - and the huge queues on opening weekend.
She said: “The initial plan was only to have some fun learning more about baking and to take pictures for my Instagram. Things just sort of snowballed from there. People kept asking where they could buy my bakes, and businesses kept asking if they could be supplied, and I kept saying ‘yes’. I never really had a plan beyond wanting to bake things to the best quality that I could and taking all the learning I could.
“I think this was helpful as it meant I could react to opportunities that presented themselves , like helping to supply the NYTimes hub at COP-26, without trying to figure out how they fit into a bigger plan. But after a year or two I began to think about opening a space.
“The atmosphere of communal sharing and enjoyment of food has always been important to me. Selling to other businesses meant I was always a bit separated from those who were enjoying my bakes. It began to feel quite solitary. Opening my own space felt like a way to be able to reconnect with customers, as well as to build the bakery into a team of people with shared values.
“It felt very hard to predict what opening week would be like. When I’ve done pop-ups at Nowita and Blackhill Bakery, the queues really took me by surprise, so I had that at the back of my mind. But I was also aware that, with how busy I had been before opening, I had done very little marketing on social media which I thought might mean it would be quieter.
“I knew there was some excitement building locally and particularly among the Water Row residents, so we invited the local residents to a ‘soft opening’ on the Thursday as a chance to find our feet.
“I’m glad we did as it was then much busier at the weekend, which can be challenging for a new team of staff working together for the first time. I felt quite protective of the staff team I’d recruited and wanted opening to feel like a success to them as well - they are a brilliant bunch and I feel really lucky to have them!”
When asked if Maple Leaf Bakery could be Glasgow’s Lannan, the Stockbridge bakery that’s so popular it’s known for its daily queue, Ms Slade said: “I think the joy of trying different bakeries or restaurants is that you get a real sense of the personalities, passions and tastes of the bakers / chefs behind the food.
“I love what Lannan do and I really admire what Darcie and her team have and continue to achieve. But I think that it’s important for Maple Leaf Bakery to reflect the tastes of myself and our growing kitchen team, rather than trying to be any other bakery. There’s a really great growing scene of bakeries in Glasgow, and I’m proud to be part of that.”
If you’re planning on visiting Maple Leaf Bakery, Ms Slade suggested to look out for the chocolate and creme patisserie pain suisse and the salted caramel brownies, as they “have always been firm favourites and will continue to be part of our weekly menu”.
While Ms Slade and her team get into the swing of their new business, plans for the rest of the year include possible events as well as enjoying what the summer brings.
Ms Slade said: “Personally, I’d like to say ‘sleep’, but I don’t think that’s on the menu. But in all seriousness, we’re looking forward to getting to use the local brambles, raspberries and strawberries into our baking during the Scottish summer, and are hoping to introduce outdoor seating in Sunny Govan too.
“We’re starting to look at planning a few events, but we’re also just trying to find our routine. On Sunday, as a team we were reflecting on how that was only the 8th time we had filled the counter and opened our doors - so it’s still early days for us and lots of learning!”
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