Tantrum Doughnuts delights sweet-toothed Southsiders with new shop

The Minard Road cafe is the third Glasgow location from the bakery which was founded by husband and wife team Iain and Annika Baillie in their home kitchen eight years ago.

Taking us back to where it all began, Iain, 34, said: “I had worked at the Gleneagles Hotel when I first left college, then for Heston Blumenthal at the Fat Duck and a few other places in Glasgow including the Ox and Finch.

“My wife is from Malta. Her professional background is all front-of-house, so around 2014 we started thinking about opening our own business.

“After umming and ahing over a few ideas, we decided on doughnuts because it was something you could do with minimal equipment.

“We bought a couple of basic fryers, the kind that you could pick up from a supermarket, for our flat and it all grew from there.

“It was a lot of hard work to get to the point where we were big enough to hire staff.”

After months of 6am starts, paperwork and pop-up events, Iain and Annika were able to open their first shop on Old Dumbarton Road in 2015 with just one member of front-of-house staff.  

The doughnuts were a hit, and Tantrum soon built a reputation as the best in Glasgow thanks to their signature brioche dough and inventive flavours unlike anything else available at the time.

A lot has changed since then, and Iain says he has enjoyed watching the city’s foodie scene evolve over the years.

Iain said: “It does feel like a long time since we opened the first shop.

“It was definitely a lot of doughnuts ago.

“We’re really happy to see how the bakery scene has changed in Glasgow since then.

“When we first started out there were very few of these sorts of ‘micro-bakeries’.

“Now you see a lot of independent places that specialise in one thing like cookies or doughnuts.

“It’s great to see how that entrepreneurial spirit has grown.”

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These days there’s certainly plenty of friendly competition in the city, but Tantrum Doughnuts continues to create the blueprint for just how much a small business can flourish with the right recipe for success.

Enthusiastic about keeping things local, the team make every effort to collaborate with others and recently worked with Glasgow Beer Works to create a Tantrum Crème Brûlé Doughnut IPA.

Each of the three shops has also partnered with Homeless Project Scotland to ensure that any leftover treats are shared within the community.

Speaking of the firm’s continued growth, Iain said: “We’ve just moved our central bakery which was a huge project for us.

“Because we’ve been making our doughnuts for so long now, we know exactly what kind of space we need and were able to build it to our exact specifications.

“Creating new flavours is a group effort and one of my favourite parts of the job."

He added: “One of our pastry chefs, Rebecca, has been with us almost from the start and we’re always on the hunt for the next cool thing to make.

“I’d say that on an average weekday now we make close to 2000 doughnuts to go out to each of the shops.

“In fact, in the space of one month, we moved bakery, opened the Southside shop and Annika and I have had a baby.

“It’s been busy.”

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It’s an amazing amount to have achieved in the space of just a few weeks leaving us wondering, what’s next?

Iain and Annika back in 2018

Iain said: “I think we’re just going to keep going in the way that we always have.

“It’s lovely to be in the Southside now and experience a new area that’s trendy and residential.

“Having the three shops now is great, so we’ll just take it as it comes.

“We’re really excited for the future.”

For more information on Tantrum Doughnuts, click here.