atrcapital.co.uk

Author: azmal@freshlab.com

Chocolate Easter Nests Recipe
Well if Easter isn’t the time for a chocolate overload then I don’t know when is. Despite the huge amounts of chocolate our Enchanting Elves have consumed so far, they were desperate to do some Easter baking.

Chocolate Cornflake nests are one of those things that you forget just how good they are, plus they are simple, no bake and great fun to make! There are loads of recipes on the web, and many variations. This is our version, and I can honestly say they are DELICIOUS. So get some ingredient, clear the kitchen table and get making with your kids – it’s the perfect afternoon activity with a sweet treat at the end!

Ingredients
200g milk chocolate
50g butter
3-4 tbsp golden syrup
100g mini marshmallows
mini eggs to decorate

Method
1. Firstly, Melt the butter, chocolate and syrup together. Melting chocolate and syrup is VERY VERY HOT. Please make sure an adult does this part. You can do this 2 ways…
- Place in a microwaveable bowl and melt in 30 second bursts. Keep stirring in between bursts and take your time. It will all melt down into a rich, smooth, chocolatey liquid (about the consistency of double cream). Keep stirring after each 30 seconds and it is done once the lumps of chocolate are melted.
- Place in a heatproof bowl that fits snugly over a saucepan (see the picture above of how this should look). Have an inch or two of simmering water at the bottom of the pan and make sure the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water. Again, take your time and keep stiring until it has all melted together.
1. Carefully place the bowl with the melted chocolate mixture onto your work surface on a tea towel. This will help to stop it slipping when you stir your ingredient in.
Next stir in your cornflakes, marshmallows or any other extras you are adding to your cornflake mix. Again, take your time to get everything evenly coated. Your marshmallows might melt a bit which makes them extra delicious! Stir them all through until your have everything coated in the chocolate mix.

Now you can put mixture into your cupcake cases. Use a spoon or your hands (make sure an adult has checked the temperature of your mix if you are using your hands – it should be cool enough to handle but not set. Again, hot chocolate, syrup and sugar is very very hot, so please double check at this stage before any small hand touch the mixture). Divide the mixture evenly into your cupcake cases and try and make a slight indent or dip in the middle – like a nest!
Finally you can add your eggs – just pick your favourite brand of mini chocolate eggs, and add 2-3 to each one. We place ours in the fridge to set for half an hour (if you can wait that long…!) and then eat and enjoy!
Have a good break over the long weekend, relax and have some good family time / down time / not work time!

Happy Easter love from Griselda and the Enchanting Elves xx
April 20, 2019
A Great Campaign for a Great City

We were briefed by London & Partners to create a bespoke gift for their international clients. London & Partners is The Mayor or London’s promotional agency. They are tasked with promoting London to an international audience to bring business, investment and people to our capital city. With 120 international delegates arriving for a conference, they wanted something fun, on-message, unique and memorable as a welcome gift in each of the delegate’s hotel rooms.

We worked with London & Partners to create a number of different ideas before agreeing on the final design. After a few taste tests(!), London & Partners chose our raspberry sugar cookie as the biscuit base, and we looked at a few different icing finishes before the final designs chosen.

The final design was an A6 white gift box. Each box contained 6 hand baked and decorated raspberry sugar cookies spelling out LONDON. We iced the first ‘O’ with an edible printed Union Jack, and hand decorated the other letters with red and blue icing, finished with piped white icing embellishments. The biscuits were on a cushion pad and sealed into cello bags for freshness. We then added some branded literature from London & Partners inside each gift box, and added on-theme ribbons and labels to each box.

Tracy Halliwell MBE, Director of Tourism, Conventions and Major Events at London & Partners said, “We were delighted with the gift boxes Griselda made for us. She ensured she understood what we needed to achieve and created something so unique, and so ‘London’ that delighted those who received them. We also had our first tweet within minutes of receiving the biscuit gift box, and so many thank you’s at the event.”Griselda Soames, Enchanting Bakes said, “This was such an amazing project to work on. We were so proud of the final design. Biscuits are such a cost-effective, efficient and happy way to communicate with customers, and the (almost immediate) tagging on social media also demonstrates their effectiveness when creating something bespoke for your customers. Thank you to Tracy and her team for such an interesting biscuit-based campaign!”

Get in touch if you would like to see what we can do for you and your business.

love and biscuits,

Griselda x

March 6, 2019
A Happy Chinese New Year
Hylink is a multinational digital advertising agency. It is China’s largest digital advertising agency and has international offices in Asia, LA, New York and London.
With clients such as Mercedes, Chanel, Citibank, Shell and Google, this is a fast growing business with a very impressive client roster.

Hylink contacted Enchanting Bakes as they were looking to create a bespoke biscuit giftbox to send to their clients to celebrate Chinese New Year. With it being The Year of the Pig, we wanted to create something simple, impactful and clearly branded that would raise a smile when opened, whilst also being relevant to the brief and the company.

We worked with Hylink to design biscuit giftboxes with their branding and messaging both inside and out.

Each giftbox had a custom lid design with a red sticker and gold lettering wishing the recipient a Happy Chinese New Year in both English and Chinese. Inside each giftbox, were 6 hand baked and individually iced vanilla sugar cookies – 5 decorated with an iced pig image and 1 decorated with the Hylink logo. The biscuits were sealed in cello bags for freshness and the giftboxes were completed with red ribbon.

The overall effect was fantastic with the giftboxes feeling personal, relevant and on brand, and the biscuits inside being delicious, unique and fun.

Here at Enchanting Bakes, we LOVED making these giftboxes. By making sure the packaging was as important a part of the marketing message as the biscuits inside, we created a truly bespoke gift that delivered real stand out for Hylink with their clients. We aim to spread biscuit happiness and know that these branded biscuit gift boxes certainly made Hylink’s clients smile!
About working with Enchanting Bakes, Hylink said “Enchanting Bakes most certainly live up to their name. The cookies are delicious! Griselda is a delight to work with and followed the brief perfectly.”

Custom biscuit treats, cookie jars and giftboxes can be such a clever and cost-effective part of your CRM strategy. Whether related to events or seasons, or as an ongoing communication, just get in touch and let’s discuss what we can do for you!
February 14, 2019
Happy, Easy Pink Biscuit Treats for Valentine’s Day
Although making biscuits is what we do every day, we still love spending a bit of family time making them too. It can be as complicated or simple as you can face, and this weekend we decided to try ‘simple, yet impressive” for our family Valentine’s baking extravaganza!

So these are very straight-forward, require no cooking (but there is chocolate melting so you will need to supervise this part) and you can be as creative as you like.

Ingredients for our pink biscuit treats…

We bought:-
- pink wafer biscuits
- white chocolate
- red candy melts (you can buy these from lots of places including Hobbycraft, Lakeland, cake decorating shops and online)
- sprinkles and sugar decorations (we used some supermarket sprinkles and dried raspberry pieces from Waitrose, but if you are going full Valentines, you could order heart sprinkles like these from the amazing Shire Bakery
and you will need:-
- greaseproof paper
- a small saucepan
- a glass bowl(s)
- a sharp knife
1) Melt your white chocolate. The trick is to melt it slowly in a glass/heatproof bowl over some gently simmering water. (For the cookery buff’s, this is called a Bain Marie). Make sure that your water is simmering gently, that the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water and that no water gets into the bowl with the chocolate. You need the steam to gently melt the chocolate until it is lovely, smooth and all melted.

2) Take your bowl off the heat and put it onto a folded tea towel to give it some stability. Place your greaseproof paper onto a chopping board, or plate so you have somewhere to place your wafers once they are dipped, and then melt a handful of candy melts (either using the same Bain Marie method and a clean bowl, or very gently in the microwave – there are instructions on the packet.)

3) Take one wafer at a time and dip half of it into the melted white chocolate. You might need to use a teaspoon to help the chocolate cover some of the sides of the wafer. Once you are happy with the coating of chocolate, place the wafer onto the greaseproof paper.

4) Use a teaspoon to drizzle the melted candy melts over the white chocolate-coated parts off the wafer biscuits. If you hold the teaspoon above the dipped wafers and gently shake it back and forth, you should get a bit of drizzle across each one. Remember, this is about having fun, not creating a perfect drizzle!

5) Sprinkle your chosen toppings – dried raspberry, hundreds and thousands or heart sprinkles…..and again, perfection is not required here, but fun is!

6) Leave somewhere cool to harden/set, and then store in an airtight jar, or package into cellophane bags with pretty ribbons ready to present to your Valentine!

7) Enjoy and please tag us @enchantingbakes to show us how you got on!

Happy Valentine’s Day,

love

Griselda x
February 10, 2019
A Very Enchanting Photo Shoot

There comes a time in every small businesses life that when people ask for a headshot, a poorly lit selfie just will not do! Having put off having any form of official photography done for me or my business, I was persuaded by a small business foodie friend that it was time!

I have to confess, this is not something that would ever be in my comfort zone, but as the business grows, so do I and so does the need to grit your teeth and get on with things! So we arranged for the fabulous @tracyticknermakeup to come and ‘do my face’. If you have never had your make up done (I was a low maintenance bride who slapped on a little bit of extra mascara and didn’t have the whole full face thing), you really must. For a start, it is wonderful to feel like a movie star. Secondly, it is an art form, with those in the know really cleverly highlighting your good bits and detracting from your less good bits! After Tracy had worked her magic, I honestly did a double take and shouted “Oh My Gosh, my eyes are so blue” – something I don’t believe I have ever had the need to shout across a room before!

The photographer was the amazing @kellyadrianastewart who really worked hard to put us at ease and to get some great natural shots. I loved that Kelly spent time taking great product shots whilst we were busy being made up, and also got some more ‘relaxed’ shots of the day.
Another big advantage of a for photo shoot is the cake, biscuit and cake pop sampling….! There was no need for dinner that night!

Anyway, after a lovely day being made up, drinking tea, eating biscuits and sharing laughs, we came out with a great selection of both product photos and headshots. There are a few photos here, and we will be using the product shots and head shots over coming months.

Thank you to @tracyticknermakeup, @kellyadrianastewart, Danielle Armstrong at The Richmond Cake School and the lovely @mrspspops for a brilliant day!

love

Griselda x

February 4, 2019
Biscuits for Business
January is always a time to take stock (not literally – everything we do is baked to order so we have no extra stock…!), look at what you’ve done well and look at where you can grow and improve.
In the spirit of being a small, entrepreneurial business (where you sometimes cannot see the wood for the trees) it is also really important to look back and celebrate some of the really amazing work you did – the orders you are particularly proud of!

2018 was quite a pivotal year in which our focus was firmly on growing the business side of our business – focusing on growing our corporate client base in addition to making some really amazing biscuits that were obviously delicious (!), and also an integral part of achieving against our client’s objectives.

We are so proud that we now have a client roster that includes both small, local businesses and huge national and multinational businesses. With companies such a Penguin, Bang & Olufsen, Halfords, Topshop / Topman, Dorling Kindersley, Holly & Co, Little, Brown, Hyperoptic, Gymboree and many more, all customers of Enchanting Bakes, we are continuing to develop ideas and unique products for these and many other corporate clients.

There are so many biscuit ‘campaigns’ we are proud of, but in the spirit of keeping this to a quick read, we’ve reviewed an initial three of our 2018 highlights here.

London & Partners – Pillow Gifts for International Conference Delegates.
London & Partners were looking for a unique and relevant ‘pillow present’ to leave in the hotel rooms of their clients. They were hosting a large conference in London with important delegates coming from all over the world.
After a few discussions, adaptations and redesigns, we created over 110 bespoke biscuit gift boxes. Each contained hand cut, baked, iced and piped letters spelling out London, with the first ‘O’ edibly printed with a Union Jack.
The boxes were then wrapped with matching ribbon and branded gift tags, and their corporate literature was placed into the boxes.

The boxes were a great hit with our client telling us they were delighted with the final design, and had lots of lovely feedback from the delegates. They loved the bespoke nature of the gft boxes, and the theme that fitted so well with their promotion of London.

Jack Wills / Taylor’d Bundles – Brand biscuits
We work with the amazing gifting service Taylor’d Bundles. They look to take something unique and with ‘stand out’ to client meetings and pitches. They work closely with the team over at Jack Wills and wanted to provide a treat that also complimented their brand and brand values.

We created a biscuit box in their corporate colours and with their brand values – courage, integrity and youthful spirit – on each and every delicious biscuit. For a simple concept, the overall effect was amazing, and the relevance of both icing colours, and messages on the biscuit made these such a hit at head office.

Becoming Michelle Obama / Penguin – Product Launch Custom Printing
We are HUGE fans of the former First Lady, so being asked to produce biscuits to support the launch of her autobiography here in the UK was one of our most amazing highlights to date! With an author and a book this iconic, no over complication is needed, so we reproduced the book cover in edible inks before packaging with complimenting ribbon bows. The individual biscuits were sent out as the pre-launch PR activity. Engagement and positive feedback was incredible on social media (Apparently they were “the best biscuits EVER” according to one prominent book reviewer….!)

So these are a snapshot of 3 of our incredible corporate orders from 2018. There are so many more that we will share in due course. But for the time being, we will leave you with these images of some of the biscuit joy we have sent into the world over 2018.

Whatever you business objectives, just get in touch to see how our biscuits and sweet treats could bring some value and stand out to your marketing / PR / promotional activity in 2019.

love and biscuits,

Griselda x
January 16, 2019
National Baking Week

So apparently it is National Baking Week this week (15th – 21st October, 2018). Here at the Enchanting Bakery, we tend to bake pretty much every day. This doesn’t dampen our enthusiasm for it though! There is nothing better than getting a few simple ingredients together and letting some magic happen!

It is fairly widely documented that baking is good for our mental health and wellbeing. Just google it, and see how many links you get. This article from the Independent seems to sum it all up. One quote that sticks out for me is “The predominant emotion evoked in respondents when baking, according to the study, is happiness followed by a sense of calm and focus.” Who doesn’t want more happiness and calm in their lives!

Whether you like to bake for mindful reasons, or just because you like biscuits, you cannot beat the feeling of seeing flour, butter, eggs and sugar be turned into something that really does spread joy to other people. And as a mother, there is nothing like an afternoon where we bake together to create something tasty, and then let the kids loose on the icing shapes and cutters. It keeps them occupied for hours, and gives them such a sense of achievement at the end, with the ultimate benefit (to them) of being able to eat it!

Even though I now bake for a living, I want to pass my passion for baking and cooking onto my children. I highly recommend it as a brilliant way to spend good (screen based!) time together, get your hands dirty, and sit and scoff together at the end.

As part of the Enchanting blog, we will be looking to share more recipes here including those chosen and baked by my children.

In the spirit of National Baking Week, let’s start with something really simple that you won’t believe can taste so good….!

As part of the Enchanting blog, we will be looking to share more recipes here including those chosen and baked by my children. In the spirit of National Baking Week, let’s start with something really simple that you won’t believe can taste so good….!

Simple Shortbread

There are lots of different recipes for shortbread including using rice and/or cornflour, plain flour, flavourings etc. However, for simplicity and as a gentle introduction, this is our favourite shortbread recipe. It works every time, uses only 3 ingredients and tastes….AMAZING!

Ingredients
125g room temperature butter
50g caster sugar
180g plain flour

Cream the butter and sugar together (with a hand held or stand mixer if you have it, if not with a bit of elbow grease!)
Mix in the flour until you have formed a dough
Roll the dough out between 2 pieces of baking paper to your desired thickness (about the thickness of a pound coin is good)
Cut into fingers, or your chosen cookie cutter shapes.
Place on a baking tray in the fridge and chill for 20 mins
Pre-heat your oven to 180C
Bake for approx 12-18 mins (ovens can vary) until starting to go golden around the edges.
Allow to cook on the baking tray.
Eat and enjoy!

lots of love,

Griselda x

October 16, 2018