Baking influencer dropped from government-funded program amid recipe feud

Thursday, 1 May 2025 17:39

Brisbane bakery owner and influencer Brooke Bellamy has dropped from a partnership with a federal government-funded program to promote entrepreneurship in young girls.

Bellamy has denied allegations made that she copied several recipes from another popular cook, RecipeTin Eats author Nagi Maehashi, that featured in Bellamy's best-selling Bake with Brooki cookbook.

A second food author, US baker Sally McKenney, later made recipe plagiarism claims of her own against Bellamy.

Australia's cookie queen Brooke Bellamy draws crowds from around the world to her Brisbane bakery

The Academy for Enterprising Girls, an initiative to promote entrepreneurship for students, has since pulled Bellamy from planned "promotional activities" for the organisation.

"Brooke Bellamy was recently engaged to conduct a small number of promotional activities for the Academy for Enterprising Girls program over the coming months" a spokesperson for the program said.

The organisation said the events had not yet taken place.

"While we make no legal assessment on the allegations aired in the media, we have informed Ms Bellamy that we will not move forward with the engagement at this time," the spokesperson said.

Backed by the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, the academy presents career workshops in schools that are designed to help students learn about innovation, design thinking, and tech skills.

Nagi Maehashi, creator of RecipeTin Eats, pictured in her kitchen. Image: Nagi Maehashi

Last night, Bellamy issued a statement denying any suggestion that she had copied any recipes.

"The past 24 hours have been extremely overwhelming. I have had media outside my home and business, and have been attacked online," she said.

"It has been deeply distressing for my colleagues and my young family.

"I do not copy other people's recipes.

"Like many bakers, I draw inspiration from the classics, but the creations you see at Brooki Bakehouse reflect my own experience, taste, and passion for baking, born of countless hours of my childhood spent in my home kitchen with Mum.

"While baking has leeway for creativity, much of it is a precise science and is necessarily formulaic.

"Many recipes are bound to share common steps and measures: if they don't, they simply don't work.

"My priority right now is to ensure the welfare of the fantastic team at Brooki Bakehouse and that of my family."

9news.com.au does not suggest that the allegations are in fact true, rather that they have been made.

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