A second popular online baker has come forward with claims her recipes were plagiarised by Brisbane TikTok star and bakery owner Brooke Bellamy.
It comes as Bellamy again denied copying recipes and said the experience had been “deeply distressing” for her family.
Nagi Maehashi of popular cooking website RecipeTin Eats yesterday published a blog accusing Bellamy of copying two of her recipes in her best-selling Bake with Brooki cookbook, released last year.
Bellamy responded late last night, denying she had plagiarised the recipes.
She said she had offered to remove the recipes in question — for caramel slice and baklava — from future reprints and that she’d been making the slice years before Maehashi published her recipe online.
Earlier today, US-based baker Sally McKenny – who runs the Sallysbakeblog page – also claimed that Bellamy had plagiarised her recipes, after Maehashi’s claims became public.
“Nagi, you know how much I admire and support you – and I’m so grateful you let me know months ago that one of my recipes (The Best Vanilla Cake I’ve Ever Had, published by me in 2019) was also plagiarised in this book and also appears on the author’s YouTube channel,” McKenny claimed.
“Original recipe creators who put in the work to develop and test recipes deserve credit, especially in a best-selling cookbook.”
Maehashi said the Sallysbakeblog was one of the most popular baking websites in the world and thanked her for coming forward.
“I recognised her vanilla cake because I’ve made it and it’s unique (it uses buttermilk),” she said.
“I know you, like me, would never say something like this lightly.”
Today, Bellamy again denied copying 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 in a statement.
“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.
All three creators have more than a million followers on social media, while RecipeTin Eats boasts more than 30 million visitors to its website a month and Brooki Bakehouse in central Brisbane often has long queues down the street.
Plagiarism claims made in blog post
Maehashi said she’d made “copyright infringement allegations” against the book’s publisher, Penguin Random House Australia, claiming it plagiarised two of her recipes, but she had not launched legal proceedings against either the author or publisher.
“To me, the similarities between the recipes in question are far too specific and detailed to be dismissed as coincidence,” she said.
“Penguin has denied the allegations. I have received no response from Brooke Bellamy, the author.
“I’m speaking up because staying silent protects this kind of behaviour. Profiting from plagiarised recipes is unethical – even if it is not copyright infringement – and undermines the integrity of the entire book.
“And it’s a slap in the face to every author who puts in the hard work to create original content rather than cutting corners.”
The Sydneysider said the similarities were brought to her attention by a reader in November and she posted comparison photos.
She described the inclusion of the recipes in the book, which Maehashi claims has sold more than 90,000 copies, or $4.6 million in sales, in six months as “disrespectful” and a “kick in the guts”.
“I put a huge amount of time and effort into testing recipes, whether it’s an original creation or one adapted from another source. It is what I am known for – the press have called me ‘obsessive’ about testing on more than one occasion,” she wrote.
“And I share them freely on my website for anyone to enjoy.
“To see them plagiarised (in my view) and used in a book for profit, without permission, and without credit, doesn’t just feel unfair. It feels like a blatant exploitation of my work.”
Bellamy responded last night on her Instagram Stories, saying she had “great respect” for Maehashi.
“I did not plagiarise any recipes in my book which consists of 100 recipes I have created over many years, since falling in love with baking as a child and growing up baking with my mum in our home kitchen,” she said.
“In 2016, I opened my first bakery. I have been creating my recipes and selling them commercially since October 2016 – as shown in the next slide and as was communicated at the first point of contact I received.
“On March 2020, Recipetin Eats published a recipe for caramel slice.
“It uses the same ingredients as my recipe, which I have been making and selling since four years prior.”
Bellamy said recipe development was “enveloped in inspiration from other cooks, cookbook authors, food bloggers and content creators”.
“This willingness to share recipes and build on what has come before is what I love so much about baking and sharing recipes – the community that surrounds it,” she said.
“I stand by my love for baking, my recipes, and the joy this book has brought so many home bakers around the world eager to try recreating my recipes from inside their homes.”
Penguin Random House Australia has been contacted for comment by 9news.com.au.
In her blog post, Maehashi said the publisher’s lawyers told her: “Our client respectfully rejects your clients’ allegations and confirms that the recipes in the BWB Book were written by Brooke Bellamy.”
