Summarised on this post it and then below written in detail, because I always get carried away!!

Following our decision to close during the week in January, fearing it would be quiet and everyone would be deep into their new year diets and saving the pennies – in fact bake-a-boo has been busier than EVER! To be honest I have actually struggled to keep up, even when I have had many days where the shop has been closed. I’ve been so busy with enquiries and parties and bookings that I haven’t actually got to achieve all the things I wanted to get done in this time. It has actually been an extremely challenging month work wise. I have also had a lot to think about. Choosing my word for 2012 as ‘grow’ – I have used this month to really think about the best way to ‘grow’ and be fearless in doing so, as I know some people wont understand my decisions, or see them as attempts to grow. But they are decisions based on the want and need to grow, but also the need to survive, because its tough being a small independent business! Its tough when people tell you what they think you should be doing and when you desperately want to please everybody!

When I opened bake-a-boo – I actually had planned to take it in a very different direction, but the demand took me down different pathways and as we are now into our 6^th year of the shop, I feel we have now established our direction and where our strengths are. I never thought ur main source of business would be parties and especially hen parties. I didn’t think afternoon tea would be more popular than cupcakes, there were many things I didn’t think – but you go in the direction that helps you survive and encourages you to grow. In thinking about what direction to go in next with bake-a-boo and the shop and myself I have to chose to ‘grow’ in the direction of the strengths we have worked hard to establish over the last five years.

So……. in February bake-a-boo (kind of) re-launches itself as

bake-a-boo – ‘bake shop, tea room and party parlour’

After our trial run we will now remain only open on Friday’s Saturdays and Sunday – however we will be extending our hours on these days.

Why?………..

We are a completely different shop during these days. We already close Mondays and Tuesdays as these weekdays, relying on passing trade on Mill Lane is just not lucrative enough for us. Remaining open on Wednesdays and Thursdays has now begun to almost ‘take away’ from the success of the weekends.

We only produce cakes – stock that does not keep – if we don’t sell it, we bin it! This is not good for anyone?

It’s not all doom and gloom, we do have other work outside of the shop and we are working on building these projects and also concentrating on maximising the pretty space we have at bake-a-boo by concentrating more on parties, private events and organised events including workshops and activities. This helps us in have pre-planned things booked in and also gives us more time to focus on the things we do best – and enhancing the bake-a-boo experience overall.

What will be doing during the week?…….

We will still be in the shop to take calls and answer emails and enquiries. We will still be able to bake orders throughout the week if they are pre-ordered and collection times have been arranged and we will still accept afternoon tea bookings for larger groups on 10 or over during the week days.

We will also strengthen our programme of workshops and events and launch both baking classes and a craft club in the evenings. These are decisions based on feedback from our customers who have asked for these things – particularly the baking classes.  We will launch the craft club and the baking classes in the spring and these will be weekly fixtures at bake-a-boo – please sign up to our mailing list to be kept informed.

And the rest of the time we will be preparing for a busy weekend of parties galore in our party parlour and beyond!!

So how will bake-a-boo change?…………

Our new opening hours for the tea room will be;

Friday, Saturday and Sunday – 10am-6pm

We will offer more breakfast goods to cater for people during the ‘morning hours’ and be able to fit in more of our ‘activity’ parties with the earlier starts.

We will tighten up our party packages both in and outside the shop and be able to offer you more choice. With some exciting new party ideas in store.

We will also be changing our system for ordering cakes which makes the information clearer and the process much easier.

We hope to improve, grow and focus on the bake-a-boo experience, and we hope to continue to make your cakes and your party dreams come true. We hope to have your continued support.

The new bake-a-boo come in with full force from Friday 17^th February. We will continue to open on the weekend only with our current hours, please bear with us while we put everything in place and hire new staff to cover our new extended weekend hours.

We also want to get Valentine’s weekend out the way before making changes as we will be opening specially on Monday 13^th and Tuesday 14^th for you to come and buy Valentine’s treats and to save on confusion we will be changing the hours after that week, but we need to remain shut on the weekdays in order to implement these things.

We look forward to seeing you this year – bake-a-boo remains the same, same cakes, same experience, same boo! We just hope to make it even better and even more creatively active with the new changes.

Thank you for your continued support.

Love boo xx

Valentines Truffle making workshop

Using a recipe you can easily re-create at home, you will create a rich and delicious truffle mix base and then flavour your truffles using natural
ingredients such as orange, mint and ginger. Whilst your truffle mix sets, you will make a beautiful box to present your truffles in and decorate this using Alice’s collection of rubber stamps and inks. Then, you will expertly roll each of you truffles and coat each in a range of coatings such as cocoa, nuts, ginger biscuit crumbs and melted chocolate. You will leave the workshop with at least 8 gorgeous truffles in a beautiful box, perfect for a valentines gift for a loved one, if you can resist eating them yourself, that is! Advance booking is essential.

Price £36pp

Sunday 12th February 10:30-12:30pm at bake-a-boo

please ask staff  instore for details, or call – 0207 435 1666 or email – info@bake-a-boo.com

Booking on this workshop is essential and we require a 50% deposit

Please let us know if you have a nut allergy and wish to attend this workshop.

Workshop held at Bake-a-boo, Bake shop and Tea room, 86 Mill Lane
London NW6 1NL
www.Handmade-by-you.co.uk

bake-a-boo VALENTINES TEA

Book now for a special tea at bake-a-boo on Valentine’s Day, or over the valentines weekend.

Yes we will will be open specially on Monday 13th and Tuesday 14th for Valentine loving!! x

Have an intimate candlelit afternoon tea with your loved one, or make it a date with a group of your single girlfriends. Regardless of whom you share it with let bake-a-boo love you with our special afternoon teas served on Valentine’s Day.

Three tea options…..

Boo’s Valentine’s tea – £18 per person

Selection of heart shaped sandwiches

Scones with jam and fresh cream

Hearts & glitter topped red velvet cupcakes

passion fruit cake slices

Mini heart shaped brownies

Chocolate dipped strawberries

Hearts and lips sweeties

All served by candlelight on tiered cake stands with scattered rose petals on your table,

and a refreshing pot of tea!

Sensitive Valentine’s tea! – £19 per person

(A tea design for gluten allergy and intolerance sufferers, all free from gluten

We can also make this tea ‘dairy free’, but we cannot make it egg free)

Gluten free finger sandwiches

Scones with jam and cream

Dark chocolate dipped strawberries

Raspberry cupcakes

Strawberry cupcakes

Mini macaroons

All served by candlelight on tiered cake stands with scattered rose petals on your table,

A packet of love hearts on your plates and a refreshing pot of tea!

Children’s Valentine’s tea – £7.50 per child – Children up to age 12

Peanut butter & jam heart shaped sandwiches

Chocolate dipped strawberries

Mini heart topped cupcakes

Vanilla glitter biscuits

Served with refreshing pink lemonade and love hearts!

As well as a cup of tea for the accompanying adult

The valentine’s tea is available on Saturday 10^th February, Sunday 11^th, Monday 13^th February

and Tuesday 14^th February 2011 – set sitting times apply

Booking is essential, a minimum of 24 houors in advance – and a 50% deposit must be paid in advance.

To book please call 020 7435 1666, or enquire within.

Valentines Treats to order

Most popular…..

Gift wrapped strawberry & raspberry chocolate heart – £28

Heart shaped chocolate cake, topped with succulent strawberries & raspberries, gift wrapped with cellophane and ribbons

Gift wrapped personalised heart cake - £26

Available in chocolate or vanilla, a heart shaped cake with your message to your loved one written – for example ‘I love you Boo’, gift wrapped with cellophane and ribbons

Gift wrapped red velvet cake - £30

Delicious red velvet cake, covered in cream cheese frosting and topped with red roses and glitter, gift wrapped with cellophane and ribbons

Special Heart cupcake gift box filled with 12 valentine cupcakes = £24

Delicious Valentine cupcakes, presented in a 12 cupcake box covered in a hearts design, and tied with red and pink ribbons. Choose the following script to be written across some of the cupcakes in your box. ‘Be Mine’ or ‘I love you’

I LOVE YOU Fairy cake box – £14

Box of 9 fairy cakes with ‘I LOVE YOU’ written across the centre row & the remaining 6 with heart designs, gift wrapped with cellophane and ribbons

Love Cupcakes?

Boxes of 4 or 9 of the following CUPCAKES……..

Valentines fairy cakes

(mixed valentines designs) –4 box = £7, 9 box = £14.50

Message cupcakes

(cupcakes iced with personality messages) -

‘floozie’, ‘Lover’, ‘Sexy’, ‘Cutie’, ‘Kiss me’, ‘Honey’, ‘Darling’, ‘Sweetie’, ‘Angel’

4 box = £7.50, 9 box = £15

Chocolate cupcakes

(decorated in valentines theme) – – 4 box = £7.80, 9 box = £16

Strawberry cupcakes

topped with fresh succulent strawberries and edible glitter – 4 box = £7.80, 9 box = £16

Red Velvet cupcakes

(decorated with red hearts and red glitter) – 4 box = £8, 9 box = £16

Champagne cupcakes

Topped with gold and red hearts and gold glitter – 4 box = £7.80, 9 box = £16

All the above cake boxes are gift wrapped with cellophane and ribbons

Valentines gifts for special diets

Gluten and Dairy free treats…..

Wheat, gluten & dairy free passion fruit cake

Moist and tangy passion fruit cake and topped with red and pink hearts – £22

Wheat, gluten & dairy free blueberry & passion fruit valentines hearts cupcakes

(topped with coloured hearts and sparkle sprinkles) – 4 box = £8, 9 box = £16

Wheat, gluten & dairy free ‘Roxy’ Raspberry cupcakes

A bake-a-boo favourite – Raspberry flavoured cupcakes with icing made with raspberry juice and topped with fresh raspberries and hearts  - 4 box = £8, 9 box = £16

Wheat, gluten & dairy free ‘Scarlet’ Strawberry cupcakes

Strawberry flavoured cupcakes with icing made with Strawberry icing and topped with a succulent strawberry – 4 box = £8, 9 box = £16

Dairy & Egg free Vegan Chocolate heart cupcakes

bake-a-boo’s popular vegan chocolate cupcakes get a re-vamp for valentines, topped with chocolate icing and a heart – 4 box – £8, 9 box = £16

All the above cake boxes are gift wrapped with cellophane and ribbons

All edible gifts must be ordered in advance, no later than Thursday 11^th February. Call 020 7435 1666.

I didnt want to just pick a word, which is why I have let a few weeks of 2012 pass and see how things have already panned out for me and 2012 before chosing my word. I made a hard decision to close the shop during the week in January and anticipated it to be a very quiet month for us, however I was probably completely wrong as the weekends have been beyond busy and even having the shop only open three days a week I am actually desperately struggling to keep up. We have possibly had record enquiries, phonecalls and bookings this month, it seems to have gone crazy, which is very encouraging and very positive.

I have taken the time we have been closed to sort things out at bake-a-boo, to make plans, re-organise things, create new systems and just generally clean up any straggly mess! and to think…. a lot.

My thoughts, my decisions and the huge influx we have had with the business allowed my ‘word’ to just come natuarlly to me.

My word for 2012 is “Grow”

I am growing confidence in making decisions and finally taking my business in a direction which I have been too afraid to risk doing before. These decisions have been made with the simple intention of ‘growing’ this business.  This in turn allows both my strength and my belief in myself and in bake-a-boo to ‘grow’. bake-a-boo is now in it’s sixth year, I remember when it was just a thought like it was yesterday, yet it feels like we have been there forever at the same time. I have put my heart and soul into it, and want to continue doing so, now I have made a lot of my mistakes and learnt a lot of my lessons I can focus on not just survival and keeping it alive, but nurturing it and allowing it to grow.

I want to grow into new areas,

to grow out of bad habits

and grow up and know that I gave it the best shot I could!

I hope you continue to support me in my decisions.

2012 is my year to grow…..

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years, filled with lots of love, laughter and festive treats!! We have enjoyed some time off at bake-a-boo to celebrate with our own families and to reflect and make plans for the new year.

Its also a time for cleaning, sorting, organising and catching up. We are looking forward to getting back into the kitchen tomorrow and baking up a storm!! The ovens have rested and they are now ready to bake again.

January is a difficult month for everybody,  we have all over indulged over the holidays, and spent way more than we probably have on presents and bringing festive joy and cheer to all. So january hits and we are suddenly all broke and on a diet. You can imagine the effect this has on a cake business and especially one that is also a cafe. You can spend an entire month not seeing the same old faces as they are all ‘trying to be good’ or ‘save the pennies’. For any business its a difficult month.

At bake-a-boo we thrive on the weekends, this is when we have all our parties, the majority of our orders and catering jobs. Our shop is packed out and we have to make considerably more cakes. However the week days can be very quiet – at the best of times, hence why we only open in the afternoons during the week and we are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. This then allows us to do outside work, which helps us survive and thrive as a business. So you can imagine its even more quiet during the weekdays in a month like January!

We also lost two members of our team at Christmas – Katie and Jenny who worked in our shop both left and it has been difficult trying to replace them over Christmas…..so we are back to poor little boo trying to do everything!! yikes!!

It may not seem like it to many of you – and I hate to get the reputation of being ‘the shop that’s always closed’ but I have no real choice but to close the shop during the week in January. This may be hard to comprehend, but we can actually lose money being open during the quiet weekdays on lonely Mill Lane!!

We will open as normal on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. I will also be there everyday as I have a mountain of paperwork to catch up on and also we have got lots of changes to make to bake-a-boo. Updating things on our website and embracing new projects, so there is lots to do – things I wont get done when I have to bake cakes and work in the shop without my girls!!

So as we do in August – for all of January we will be closed Monday-Thursday. I will be there to answer the phone, take your bookings and orders and answer emails. I will be in work mode every day, so please do feel absolutely free to bombard me as you wish – if you need to order cakes to be collected during the week – I will also do my best to fulfil your orders, so please do not hesitate to ask or make orders.

February and March are our busiest months and with this time to catch up and improve we will be back in full *air punching* effect and all back to normal in February.

We hope to see some of those familiar faces tomorrow and over the weekend and I’m looking forward to getting my apron back on!! yippeee!

JANUARY OPENING HOURS

Friday – 12pm-6pm

Saturday – 10am-6pm

Sunday – 12pm-6pm

IF YOU HAVE WEEKDAY BOOKINGS, ORDERS OR EVENTS ALREADY BOOKED WITH US, YOU WILL NOT BE EFFECTED, THESE WILL STILL BE FORFILLED.

Happy 2012. Love boo xxxxxxx

Leon and I named 2011 – ‘twenty one one’ – we started off the year with an amazing 1940s themed new years eve and we had the most wonderful time and were full of positivity, we had the twenty one one bug big time!! this got us through January!! x

January is always a dull month for everyone – so when we finally get to February, we are always excited to celebrate Valentine’s!! A happy occassion at bake-a-boo where we can fill the air with love and heart shaped cakes. This is Leon, Kate and boo on Valentine’s day in the shop! x

The end of February we had a bake-a-boo trip to the cinema to see Leon’s lovely wife Vanessa in West is West, well done V x

In March I made my first rainbow cake for my sisters birthday cake – it was a huge hit! x

In April Kate and boo donned our bunny ears for Easter!! My favourite time of the year!!! x

The end of April gave us all a lovely holiday as we celebrated the Royal Wedding of Kate and Wills – we made lots of Royal wedding cupcakes for lots of your Royal wedding parties – we were contacted by the Rachel Ray show in New York to talk about Royal wedding cakes, and our Royal wedding cupcakes went onto the BBC London breakfast show. Boo also hosted an epic Royal wedding party at home – these were our cupcakes for the boo wedding party!

In May – A photoshoot with resident bake-a-boo potographer Xanthe Berkeley for miss boo’s birthday! x

The day after boo’s birthday Leon and boo go on BBC London radio and serve afternoon tea for Jo Good, along with US band Young the Giant

The end of May and the lovely Laura comes to work at bake-a-boo!! We love Laura and her jam and toffee making and love of all things vintage!

In June we celebrated little Brin’s Christening at Sirous in West Hampstead – son of lovely Jasmine, one of our most loyal and regular customers at bake-a-boo – one of our favourite West Hampstead families! x

In July we celebrate Laura’s birthday with steak and lobster and, of course, bake-a-boo cake! x

And Actor Samuel Roukin comes to work in the bake-a-boo kitchen in preparation for his role in ‘The Kitchen’ at the national theatre.

In August – boo gets her first neices!!! when her sister’s cat has beeeeeeeeautiful kittens xxxxx

In Spetember we celebrate lovely kitchen belle – Ania’s birthday with a girly dinner and bake-a-boo cake x

In October we re-lauched create and do at bake-a-boo with a special event at bake-a-boo……

and boo got a vintage makeover from Sophia, our gorgeous vintage hair and make up workshop teacher x

Laura carved the bake-a-boo pumpkins as we made lots of spooky cakes for Halloween

Leon organised an amazing dinner at the Dorchester as we celebrated his wife Vanessa’s 30th Birthday. What luxury!! x

In November we did a BIG job for the staff at the groupon offices, we were glad when these boxes went off to their hungry mouths!!

In November we celebrated bake-a-boo’s 5th Birthday and discovered how much we love wearing party hats at bake-a-boo!!

and we made ourselves a cake!! Happy Birthday bake-a-boo xxx

At the end of November Leon and I went to New York to do a job – it has been my dream to go to New York and I fell in love with the city!!!

I also got to go to babycakes – the gluten free and vegan bakery in New York I had been dreaming of going to fo years – and it was worth the trip!!

Xanthe Berkeley featured boo in her ‘i love series’ of videos – we had fun fliming with shoes!!!!

you can see the video here

December brought some sadness – boo, being a local girl went to nursery in West Hampstead and was so touched to be visited by the amazing Linda Madden at bake-a-boo many times over the years – Linda  recognised me after over 20 years as a pupil at Rainbow – after coming into the shop one day – she was still the headteacher of boo’s nursery!!! Linda frequented bake-a-boo and sent lots of business our way. I was so touched when Linda turned up at bake-a-boo one day with a beautiful golden cupcake necklace for me with a card telling me how proud she was of me. Linda was one of the most hard working people I have ever known – she was a go getter and an inspiration, I adored her and she had the most amazing attitude and zest for life – even when she was sadly battling cancer. Sadly Linda lost her battle at the end of October. and when I was invited to a special memorial evening for Linda in December I of course wanted to attend – but also wanted to do the cakes!! Pink was Linda’s favourite colour – maybe thats where I got it from!! (She even had pink hair when I was little) so all the cupcakes where pink – with lots of rainbows and rainbow colours. We released these balloons for Linda at the rainbow school in West Hampstead as part of this lovely evening to remember her life. Miss you Linda xxx

Sadly also in December a week later poor boo lost her beloved cat coco!! Miss you too coco xxx

And all of a sudden it was the end of December – and the end of another year!! The end of twenty one one – maybe the fastest year of my bake-a-boo life!!! it flew by. We rounded off the year with lots of Christmas festivities – Christmas cakes all round, judging at the Beckford school (boo’s primary school) Christmas fair, the West Hampstead Christmas market and lots of lovely cards from our lovely customers – we also had the girls from the reception class at Sarum Hall school come to bake-a-boo on a school trip to make Christmas tree decoration biscuits. We love the Sarum Hall school girls!! They are the sweetest girls!!!!!!!

And so another year ends and we enter our 6th year at bake-a-boo. We are making plans and hope to make bake-a-boo better and better this year. Let us know what you would like to see at bake-a-boo this year!! We are one big (Well little actually) happy family at bake-a-boo and we thank you all for giving us the opportunity to make cakes for you, we love you all xxx

HAPPY NEW YEAR – HERE’S TO YEAR 6 AND 2012 AT BAKE-A-BOO XX

I heart Christmas!

Or any excuse to put on a pretty dress and shoes!! with my Stella & Dot jewels!

what did you wear this Christmas?

Hope you all had a fabulous one!

Love boo x

We are looking for bright, bubbly & dedicated people to work in our shop for the following hours

Friday 11:45-6:15

Saturday 9:45-6:15

You main duties will include, serving customers in our shop, both for take away and eat in. Working with the kitchen team to serve all our aftermoon tea sittings, setting up for parties and maintaining the shop keeping it clean and tidy at all times.

Excellent customer service, and some experience of working in a cafe/restaurant is essential,.We do require you to have some experience, and if you are familiar with using a coffee machine this would be hugely beneficial to you.

You must be fluent in English and have an interest in cakes and tea!!

We are a small and friendly team and we need people to fill the missing links we currently have….

please email your CV and tell us something about yourself to info[at]bake-a-boo.com

we look forward to hearing from you xx

We are looking for bright, bubbly & dedicated people to work in our shop for the following hours

Friday 11:45-6:15

Saturday 9:45-6:15

You main duties will include, serving customers in our shop, both for take away and eat in. Working with the kitchen team to serve all our aftermoon tea sittings, setting up for parties and maintaining the shop keeping it clean and tidy at all times.

Excellent customer service, and some experience of working in a cafe/restaurant is essential,.We do require you to have some experience, and if you are familiar with using a coffee machine this would be hugely beneficial to you.

You must be fluent in English and have an interest in cakes and tea!!

We are a small and friendly team and we need people to fill the missing links we currently have….

please email your CV and tell us something about yourself to info[at]bake-a-boo.com

we look forward to hearing from you xx

Kuenh Keramik Darling teacup

Maria Allen love letter message necklace

Teapot and Teacup crochet decoration

Tatty Devine bunting necklace

Anya Hindmarch reciept purse

Cath Kidston spray flower dinner plates

‘Maureen’ cushion from Crumpet & Skirt (a friend for my other 2 cushions)

Oliver Bonas golden bow necklace

Lulu Guiness lips clutch

Laura Ashley teacup lamp

Fairy dust

Festive heart stamp

Love Miss Daisy pretty vintage pink dress

Cate Parr watercolour fashion illustration print

Chocolate letters

Diptyque perdigone Christmas candle

Gift card to spend on beautiful blooms in my fave flower shop Achillea

Marc Jacobs glitter mouse ballerina pumps

Belle and Boo ‘hot chocolate’ print

So santa….I’ve definitely been an awful good girl! I’m wishing………

Love boo xx

Anyway I just wanted to share Stella & Dot with those of you who weren’t there on the night, as Christmas is fast approaching, add some sparkle to your Christmas list, or treat yourself? here

Top of my Christmas list are the Madeline pearl necklace, the Medina bib necklace (below), the Petra braided bracelet and the Chantilly lace cuff (I love the story behind the design of this braclet) I mean I could go on and on, but if somebody could just let Father Christmas know about those ones for starters I would be most grateful xx

And one of the best things about Stella & Dot is that is all comes beautifully packaged, just tie a ribbon round it and you are ready to go, the boxes are all beautiful with lovely feel good messages, happy shopping x