‘It wouldn’t be Christmas without gingerbread’

The biscuit maker who found sweet success

Heading into my bakery on a cold December morning, the smell of Christmas is in the air with wafts of freshly baked gingerbread. It’s our busiest time of year, but never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that my love of baking would turn into such a successful business.

GETTING STARTED

When I was a little girl, every Christmas I’d be standing on a stool helping my mum cut out gingerbread. When I became a mum myself, I carried on baking. For my daughter Isabella’s christening eight years ago, my younger sister Rosie and I created a colour-coordinated dessert table filled with iced biscuits, mini cupcakes and a huge macaron tower. ‘These taste amazing,’ friends said. ‘You should start a business!’ At the time, we just laughed; I was already busy working as a wedding photographer.

But a year later, as Rosie and I were chatting, we thought: ‘Maybe we could sell cakes and biscuits.’

In 2012, we paid a friend £100 to create a website, I took the photos and my husband Colin bought us a gorgeous Kitchenaid mixer. Initially, it was just a bit of fun, but we soon learned that cakes were expensive to make and easily broke in the post, so we decided just to sell biscuits. The Honeywell Biscuit Company was born. We made gingerbread for Christmas and vanilla for the rest of the year, which were iced and cut into quirky shapes such as stars, candles, or even pizza.

ON THE RISE

Business was slow at first but the following year, in 2013, when I was heavily pregnant with my second daughter, Jessica, I received an email from Selfridges in London saying a buyer had spotted our biscuits online and it wanted to sell them in store. We were thrilled and we set to work icing 1,200 biscuits. When the first batch didn’t dry properly, we had to start all over again, but by autumn our collection was selling in Selfridges.

As our orders increased, we moved into wonderful new premises, a former

Victorian grain pit with beams and high ceilings, and spent £10,000 on cooking equipment. Rosie left the business when she moved to Scotland, but I now have a team of 15, including bakers, artists and marketers.

THE CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN

We start prepping for Christmas in March, designing the new collections. Our Christmas jumper biscuits, £28 for a medium box, and our Advent jars, £42, always do very well. We put up fairy lights and sing along to Christmas songs as we work, even enjoying some mulled wine!

I spend three days a week in the bakery and one day working from home. Some days I’ll be taking pictures for our Instagram account or the website; other times I’ll be discussing new designs. When it gets really busy, I get stuck in with the icing.

Christmas can be overwhelming, working from 7am until 10.30pm, but it’s important everyone receives their biscuits on time. When we shut up shop on 22 December, we go home and collapse! I take any leftovers home and on Christmas Eve the kids and I make up a little jar of biscuits to leave beside the fireplace for Santa. Our dogs, Biscuit and Cookie, are also partial to a few.

After all, it wouldn’t be Christmas without gingerbread.

• honeywellbakes.com