Hoffler Alex - Meringue girls: incredible sweets everybody can make

We thought it was too good to be true when we got our first cookbook deal, and now here we are, two years later, with cookbook number TWO! Our first cookbook, Meringue Girls Cookbook , has now been published all over the world, from Italy and Germany, to America and New Zealand.

Finding a premises for our bakery was tough. We viewed so many different kitchens that werent quite right, and we had almost lost all hope until we found the perfect space at 1 Broadway Market Mews. It had been recently used as a roti (deep-fried bread) factory, and was covered in so much grease and grime that you couldnt even see through the windows. With a lot of hard work and elbow grease, steam-cleaning, and a sprinkling of MG magic dust, we gutted and transformed the oily shell into our beautiful shiny workspace, where we now make all our lovely meringues, take masterclasses, do photo shoots, and run our office.

We have gone from being just us two gals, to having an entire team of incredible Meringue Girls. We now employ one head baker the astonishing Sylvia Pearson and have a team of eight other talented Meringue Girls helping to run the show. Its becoming a well-oiled meringue machine.

We are running regular masterclasses from our new bakery, which were rated by the Evening Standard as one of the best London-based foodie masterclasses. Our passion for street food and foodie events is also very much alive. We have a weekly market stall at Broadway Market, which we love. Plus we are now supplying heaps of great retailers, including Selfridges, Fortnum & Mason, Jamie Olivers Recipease and Harvey Nichols, as well as being in recent talks about some super-exciting global franchising plans.

Our orders go up and up every week, and we are continuing to create bespoke sweet creations for high-end fashion brands & PR and press events. Weddings are also a huge part of our work. We have teamed up with the lovely Carla at Fondant Fox to create amazing bespoke wedding and celebration cakes.

We are developing our passion for food styling and are now represented by the amazing HERS agency whove teamed us up with clients such as the BBC, Wallpaper , the Guardian , Grazia , Tesco, Morrisons and Green & Blacks.

Some recent highlights have been working with Selfridges to create an iconic Oxford Street shop window display of mountainous meringues, creating a Rainbow Bellini bar for Ab Fab Quaglinos, and making an appearance on Paul Hollywoods Pies and Puds , Sunday Brunch and Alan Titchmarsh . We were even lucky enough to be commissioned by Waitrose TV to present three short Christmas baking videos in our very own bakery. BASICALLY. SO. MUCH. FUN.

Stacey got married to the love of her life, Brady, and Alex got engaged to the man of her dreams, Neil and had a beautiful baby Meringue Girl called Indi. We told you we have been busy!

From being completely clueless, carefree, and going into it all with a blind eye (seriously, whats a profit and loss sheet?!), weve worked hard, and have gained so much business knowledge along the way. Celebrating our wins, learning from our mistakes, and having a lot of fun doing it.

Our dedication in the first book was to everyone who dreams of leaving their 9 to 5. What makes us really happy is the feeling that we have inspired lots of people to bake, and even to take the plunge and start up their own baking business. We are so happy to read emails from people who are giving it a go. Our mantra will always be to inspire people to reach for their rainbow.

We seriously couldnt have done all this without the support of so many who know who they are. From just 300 Instagram followers in 2013, to over 60,000 thank you to all our supporters, we are so humbled every day. We want to say a huge thank you to David Loftus, who we truly believe set the wheels of this whole adventure in motion, by taking amazing photographs for our website, and Instagramming a few snaps isnt social media a dream!

We absolutely love Instagram (to the point of addiction). It is a real hobby of ours to watch baking trends develop and new ideas flourish. We have been inspired by so many amazing people all over the world, and have attempted to credit the sources of our inspiration throughout the book. Go and check out their accounts, you wont be disappointed.

There is no stopping our momentum, and we have now set our sights high on Meringue Girls world domination. Who knows what wondrous things these next few years will bring, but one thing we do know is that we will be reaching for the rainbows.