Our Partnership With Peter Sawkins At The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

Peter Sawkins, winner of the Great British Bake Off 2020 and Edinburgh-local, has partnered up with our team at Heritage portfolio to create a bespoke bakery range to be sold exclusively at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. The sweet treats on offer include carrot patch cupcakes, rhubarb and orange cake and apple tarts, all inspired by the garden’s seasonal produce.

The Inspiration Behind the Cakes

When speaking to Peter about the range, he explained, “The bakes I’ve made for this collaboration were designed to fit alongside the Garden, so are all centred around fruits, vegetables, and herbs. The apple tart has a lemon thyme infused custard, which brings a gentle zing and floral note. The carrot patch cupcakes are cute little things that you could almost see growing in the kitchen garden. My favourite of the three, the orange and rhubarb cake use whole oranges to bring a rounded taste with sweetness, sharpness and bitterness and is the perfect backdrop for my favourite fruit to use in baking, rhubarb. The two cakes are gluten-free so I hope they can be enjoyed by even more people. I can’t wait for people to try the bakes and hope they make an already grand day out at the Garden a little sweeter!”.

Our Team’s Excitement

Clare Short, Head of Commercial Sales at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh explained her excitement around this collaboration “We are delighted to welcome Peter to the garden and join us on our culinary journey with our catering partner Heritage Portfolio. Peter has created cakes that are exclusive to the Garden and what makes it even more special, as many people know from his Bake-Off competition, Peter is local and from Edinburgh. It is fantastic to give him the opportunity to showcase his talents right on his own doorstep using produce grown on site here in our kitchen garden. We hope that our visitors enjoy the cakes from this very talented baker, tasting produce from our garden and being part of this unique and exciting collaboration.”

The Launch Event

We kicked off this exciting collaboration by hosting our launch event at the iconic John Hope Gateway in July. The event was a sweet celebration of Peter Sawkins' remarkable cake range, where our guests got a chance to not only meet the mastermind behind the range, but also savour its scrumptious flavours. Peter shared his top tips and answered the audiences' burning questions in a lively Q&A session that offered a fascinating insight into the secrets behind his baking magic. When asked about his favourite cake, Peter revealed his love for the iconic apple tart, which our guests were excited to try. And that's not all! The icing on the cake was the meet and greet with Peter, where attendees had the chance to chat with him. It was an unforgettable event that left everyone with a sweet taste in their mouths!

Come and Try Them for Yourself!

Peter’s delectable cake range will be available at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s cafés for the next 6 months, so make sure not to miss out on savouring these unique flavours!