Two well-known cookbook authors have leveled allegations against TikTok personality Brooke Bellamy, claiming she copied their original recipes.
Nagi Maehashi, the Australian creator behind the acclaimed food blog RecipeTin Eats, asserted that Ms Bellamy’s cookbook includes recipes displaying “word-for-word similarities” to her own works.
Ms Bellamy, proprietor of the renowned Brooki Bakehouse, has strongly refuted these claims, maintaining that her collection features “100 recipes I have created over many years.” She added that at least one contested recipe predated Ms Maehashi’s publication.
Following Ms Maehashi’s disclosure, American author Sally McKenney also accused Ms Bellamy of reproducing her vanilla cake recipe without permission.
Ms Maehashi noted a reader had highlighted “remarkable similarities” between her caramel slice recipe and one found in Ms Bellamy’s best-selling cookbook, Bake with Brooki.
She further claimed to have uncovered parallels between her baklava recipe and Ms Bellamy’s, providing a detailed comparison on her RecipeTin Eats platform.
As the author of two popular cookbooks, Ms Maehashi’s website, launched in 2014, generates approximately 45 million monthly page views.
Ms Bellamy operates three Brooki Bakehouse locations in Queensland, established in 2022. She is a prominent baking influencer on TikTok, amassing two million followers.
Ms Maehashi stated she contacted Ms Bellamy’s publisher, Penguin Random House Australia, alleging that legal representatives were brought in, resulting in “what felt to me [was] legal intimidation.”
“It feels like a blatant exploitation of my work. To see them plagiarised and used in a book for profit, without permission, and without credit, doesn’t just feel unfair,” she said.
Ms Maehashi has since engaged her own legal advisors and formally written to both Ms Bellamy and the publisher.
Bake with Brooki was released in October 2024 and has achieved total sales of A$4.6 million (£2.1m; $2.9m USD).
Both Penguin Random House and Ms Bellamy have categorically denied the plagiarism claims, with Penguin stating in a response that “the recipes in the BWB Book were written by Brooke Bellamy.”
While denying any impropriety, Ms Bellamy said she offered to remove some recipes from future printings “to prevent further aggravation”, a decision she said was communicated “swiftly” to Ms Maehashi.
Expressing admiration for Ms Maehashi, Ms Bellamy nevertheless defended her own recipes across several Instagram stories.
“Recipe development today is constantly influenced by cooks, cookbook authors, food bloggers and content creators,” she said, adding that the “spirit of sharing recipes” is something she treasures about baking.
Both Bake with Brooki and Ms Maehashi’s cookbooks have been shortlisted for this year’s Australian Book Industry Awards.
Ms McKenney, who oversees popular website Sally’s Baking Addiction, accused Ms Bellamy of using her vanilla cake recipe in both the cookbook and on a YouTube channel.
“Original recipe creators who dedicate time to developing and testing deserve credit—especially in a best-selling cookbook,” Ms McKenney commented on Instagram.
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