I recently received an email from a distant family friend with the following content:

"I was brought up in Scotland and i distinctly remember my mother buying what was called Bullet Loaf. It was a dense, light brown loaf, possibly with some oat flour in it. Baked in a used shell casing - hence the name & shape, round with one end flat and the other slightly rounded. I have searched all over for a recipe, or even an acknowledgement that this ever existed, so I'd be grateful for confirmation from ANYONE that I didn't dream it, and if anyone has a recipe I would be eternally grateful!"

I have never heard of this and have consulted my Scottish partner who is also drawing a blank - does anyone know what this is, or where one might find a recipe for such a delicacy? ( I tried a basic Google and only found a few pretty offensive things!)

I'll take a shot at this I do vaguely recall hearing somewhere about shell casings being used as a cake tin, so your relative us not completely out to lunch. Bread names can differ depending on which part of the country you are in, so it might just have been a contemporary (for the time) name for a light brown loaf.

Was this during the WWII or shortly after?

During those years, there was a loaf called "National Loaf"

The Home Front Housewife: Recipe 5: The National Loaf

Perhaps the local bakery just baked it in a used artillery shell?

"Bullet Loaf"? I never heard of it !

think the map is way out..a bridie is a meat filled pastry, it has a rowie covering most o the borders sw Scotland ...a rowie is from Aberdeen a savoury bread...for the Scottish borders south Scotland ..morning roll./roll

Yes, always remember it being morning roll in Edinburgh.

Agreed,
If you went into a bakers and asked for a 'morning roll' in Aberdeen (or any part of NE Scotland) they would look at you like you'd grown an extra head lol
And a Buttery/Rowie doesn't resemble a bap in any way shape or form.