Brooke Bellamy Addresses Accusations of Recipe Plagiarism
Influencer Brooke Bellamy has spoken out about allegations claiming she intentionally plagiarized recipes in her 2024 Bake With Brooki cookbook.
“I do not copy other people’s recipes,” Bellamy, 33, stated in a Wednesday, April 30, interview with CNN. “Like many bakers, I draw inspiration from classic dishes, but the creations you find at Brooki Bakehouse are a reflection of my experience, taste, and passion for baking, shaped by countless hours spent in my kitchen with my Mum.”
She continued, “While baking allows for creativity, it is also a precise science and inherently formulaic. Many recipes will naturally share common steps and measurements; if they don’t, they simply won’t work.”
Us Weekly has reached out for further comments from Bellamy.
Bellamy’s cookbook, Bake With Brooki, was initially published in October 2024. Less than a year later, several food writers alleged that parts of her content were copied from their own works.
“This story involves a multi-million dollar cookbook by a social media influencer, published by a reputable publisher, presenting numerous recipes that, in my view, are plagiarized, given the extensive and detailed word-for-word similarities to mine and those of other authors,” Nagi Maehashi expressed on her “RecipeTinEats” blog on Tuesday, April 29. “The similarities between the disputed recipes are, in my opinion, too specific and detailed to be regarded as mere coincidence.”
She added, “I’m speaking out because silence enables this kind of behavior. Profiting from plagiarized recipes is unethical — even if it doesn’t constitute copyright infringement — and undermines the integrity of the entire book. It’s a disservice to every author who diligently creates original content rather than taking shortcuts.”
Maehashi specifically claimed that her Caramel Slice recipe is nearly identical to one included in Bellamy’s book.
“While recipes can often look alike, given that there are only so many ways certain dishes can be made, the precision and detail of these similarities in this instance are, in my opinion, far too strong to be coincidental,” Maehashi stated. “I can recall the exact moment that inspired the creation of this recipe — how and why it was crafted, and the trials I faced before finally finding The One.”
The blogger behind “Sally’s Baking Addiction,” Sally McKenney, also alleged that her vanilla cake recipe was included without permission in Bake With Brooki.
“Nagi, you know I have immense admiration for you — and I’m really thankful you informed me months ago that one of my recipes (The Best Vanilla Cake I’ve Ever Had, published in 2019) was also featured in this book and appears on the author’s YouTube channel,” McKenney noted on social media earlier this week. “Original recipe creators who invest the effort to develop and test recipes deserve recognition — especially in a best-selling cookbook.”
Random House Australia, the publisher of Bellamy’s book, has yet to address the allegations. Us Weekly has also reached out for a statement.
