Swift - Primrose Bakery Christmas

Christmas time is all about tradition, from the songs we sing to the food we eat, but, from mince pies to Christmas pudding, the food of Christmas could always benefit from extra help to make it shine just a little bit brighter.

The Primrose Bakery has been bringing an extra bit of twinkle to their Christmas baking for over a decade and in this book reveal their unique twists and exciting reinventions of traditional Christmas treats, as well as all-new recipes to breathe fresh life into your festive baking repertoire.

The chapters feature over 100 delicious recipes for seasonal cupcakes, impressive wintry celebration cakes and stunning dessert centerpieces, as well as charming biscuits, cinnamon-scented loaves, indulgent bars and brownies and wonderfully personal edible gifts. Step-by-step sequences reveal the secrets behind assembling a perfect layer cake, building a magnificent gingerbread house from scratch and rolling a perfect festive Yule log, and, in true Primrose Bakery-style, the recipes are all easy to follow for wonderful results at home.

From warming Eggnog Cupcakes and decorative and delicious Popcorn Baubles to a lavish Christmas Pavlova Wreath or decadent Christmas Pudding Cake with Mulled Wine Icing, this book offers wonderfully festive recipes to make your Christmas baking a triumph.

The Primrose Bakery was co-founded in the kitchens of Martha Swift and Lisa Thomas in 2004. In the last decade the bakery has gone from strength to strength, with the opening of two shops in Primrose Hill (2006) and Covent Garden (2008) and the publication of three recipe collections, Cupcakes From the Primrose Bakery, The Primrose Bakery Book and Primrose Bakery Celebrations. In October 2014 the bakery will celebrate its 10th anniversary and the publication of a fourth cookery book, Primrose Bakery Christmas.

Martha Swift is now sole owner of the bakery and lives in Primrose Hill, North London, with her two daughters.

The idea for a Christmas book came about through a desire to combine the traditional ideas of Christmas baking with the Primrose Bakery idea of Christmas. Christmas is probably the biggest celebration of the year for many people round the world, and in my two shops we all have a lot of fun with Christmas cupcakes, cakes, decorations, presents and a general feeling of happiness more than probably at any other time of year. For me on a personal level, it is the one time of year I let my mum come and work in the shop, which she looks forward to all year round, although it is often hard to get her to stop chatting to everyone and actually work!

At Christmas we look forward to the end of the year, usually to have some time off work, a chance to catch up with family and friends, to eat and drink more than usual and hopefully to get a chance to relax and enjoy this special time. There is often more time to do some baking, either for yourself and your family or to make delicious gifts and treats to take to parties and get-togethers or simply give as Christmas presents. The recipes in this book do not only have to be made at Christmas and are not all Christmas-specific, more a collection of some of our recipes that we think work particularly well at this time of year and ones that can be given as gifts or used as decorations. Many of them you will find in our shops both in December and popping up through the year. Hopefully it is also a book you will come back to at many times through the year to find a favourite recipe, or indeed a book that could itself be given as a present.

This is the bakerys fourth book and also marks ten years since Primrose Bakery was founded. I cant believe that ten years have gone by already although I am secretly happy, as I was recently told that it is only once your business has been running for ten years that you can consider it established and a success. I am so glad I didnt know that three years in! In the time since Lisa and I wrote Celebrations there have been some big changes at the bakery, which I hope have not been too noticeable to our customers but which I think are vital for the continued success of the bakery. In November 2013 Lisa decided to pursue other interests she had away from Primrose Bakery and we decided I would take over as sole owner I am so happy that we founded the business together ten years ago and will miss her huge creative input and presence but I am also excited to take the bakery into the next ten years and beyond. Primrose Bakery never was and never will be just about the two of us: we are backed by all the amazing and talented staff we employ, both in the kitchens and in the shops, and all our books are a reflection of this team effort. In the last ten years we have developed more than 70 flavours of cupcake, although chocolate and vanilla remain the most popular, closely followed by salted caramel. You will find some of our latest flavours here, which I hope still remain simple to prepare.

Even ten years on, the bakery kitchens remain a combination of home and professional. There is still no huge equipment and we still bake in small batches. We source the best ingredients we can and try to stick to using seasonal produce. I truly believe this helps us maintain the high quality of our cupcakes and cakes, and I also believe it helps keep the recipes in the books simple to follow and delicious. The development of new recipes remains a group effort, and for this book I have tried to encourage every member of my staff to get involved especially to keep in with the Christmas idea of bringing everyone together. The days and hours working at the bakery can be long and sometimes stressful, and it is a credit to the chefs who work there that they are always cheerful and passionate about their baking. For this book I must give special credit to our former head chef, Lisa Chan, who sadly had to leave the UK in October 2013 to return home to Australia but who has been a vital part of this book and who I hope will be involved in the bakery for many years to come, wherever she may be living.

I have been lucky enough to travel to some amazing countries in the last few years and wherever I go I try to find the local cake shops, cake decorations and baking equipment. One of my favourite things to do is to find the local supermarkets and markets and discover new ingredients and flavours that might find their way back to our kitchens to be incorporated into a new cupcake or cake recipe. I have been to Singapore a few times and, apart from the beautiful weather, find the people there passionate about food and anything new the cupcakes craze has really taken off there in recent years. I am hoping to open a Primrose Bakery some-where in Asia in the next few years. At the same time, I have also been inspired by some of the ingredients and favourite tastes I have tried in many different countries and, given the many different nationalities I employ, to try to include recipes in this book that include Christmas baking from different parts of the world.