The bakery had an amazingly busy Christmas, all the changes we made during 2011 to improve our facilities proved worthwhile and the festive period was confirmed to have been a huge success. It was like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory, with all our bakers working like trojans (or oompa-loompas!) to make sure our customers got all the biscuits, Florentines, wafers and straws they wanted.

At home – the Fudge’s family Christmas was just brilliant! The builders left the day the family arrived for Christmas – not a lot of time to get things ship shape.

My lovely friend Christine arrived presents in hand, but instead of a sit down and a jolly good natter, I hiked her up the stairs to help make beds (and have another natter). Now that’s what I call a friend!! For the first time in six months I felt I had a home and not a building site. I could turn the music up loud and run around the house naked!! Okay maybe not with a house full of guests, but it so was nice to feel the house was our own at long last.

My grandson, ‘Big’ Harry, weighed the same as our turkey, a whopping 15½ pounds. We sat them together on the table when the turkey was all dressed up and ready for the oven and took photos (we’ll embarrass him with the evidence in a few years time!) Don’t worry; we made sure the right one went in the oven! This year I cooked the turkey overnight in the Aga’s simmering oven. The result was amazingly juicy and created with so little fuss it meant I could concentrate on the rest of the meal and entertaining my guests.

“Stuff the neck of the turkey with a mixture of breadcrumbs, sausage meat, herbs, onions and cranberries. Pop an orange and onion in the cavity and cover the whole turkey with smoked bacon. Seal inside a roasting bag to help keep in the flavour and juices!! Ta dah!!”

As always it was a very relaxed day, the grandchildren were impeccably behaved. Isobel, 2 ¾, helped me make mince pies for Father Christmas, it was such a joy. A lot of licking the spoon went on, but she did a brilliant job. We made enough to offer everyone a morsel and had four left over for Father Christmas. It was very special to watch her put her stocking (made by her mummy, Sarah) by the fireplace and carefully place her carrot for Rudolf and the four mince pies together on the plate. It’s memories such as these I’ll always treasure.

Well, now that I’m lucky enough to have a new kitchen and garden room I’m catching up on entertaining. We hosted New Year’s Eve and had friends over for supper. My favourite starter is Leslie Walters’ recipe for ‘Salted and Black Pepper Pears’, roasted in the oven. I served them on a bed of mixed herb lettuce with Woolsery Goat’s Cheese Fiesta Feta (you can use Greek) which I marinated in olive oil along with bruised sage leaves and garlic cloves (another Leslie recipe). I served them with Fudges Cheese and Black Pepper Flatbreads. Delicious and so simple.

All attention is now on Easter at the bakery; we’ve already started to make our yummy, spicy, buttery Easter Biscuits. These traditionally over-sized biscuits were originated (as all good food does) in the West Country and given to guests on Easter Sunday. Make sure you start looking out for them in store or online. We are very excited to have lots of our customers making big orders already!

Our Florentines, chocolate-dipped biscuits and flapjacks make a great alternative gift for your friends and family at Easter. All are crafted by hand, with extra special care to make sure they are properly coated in as much Belgian chocolate as possible!

Plans are coming together for the year ahead; keep up to date with all our news, information and chances to win goodies by signing up for our newsletter. Or for a lovely journal that’s packed with great ideas of places to visit and things to see and do with your family and friends, delivered direct to your inbox, just visit our website. Why not curl up by the fire, with a cup of steaming hot chocolate and dunk your favourite Fudges biscuit into it? I like Milk Choc Chip, mmmmm – very naughty, but gorgeous! Don’t forget to “like” us on Facebook and “follow” us on Twitter too.

I always like to have to have a project on the go and it’s the garden that is the priority as we near spring. My Niece Becky is getting married in our local church and has asked to have the reception at our house. Just the thing to keep me busy, I have until September to make the garden beautiful. She has requested “Sunflowers everywhere”. I’ll keep you updated with progress and share all the news from Fudges Bakery and family again soon!

Sue x

The Retro Vintage and Craft sale was a huge success. I have to admit not having organised anything like this before made me very nervous. In fact, I didn’t sleep a wink – what if no one came!

But they did in their droves! We made an amazing £1,300 to share between our Church Fabric Fund and Help for Heroes. It was a very social event with folks staying and enjoying homemade soup and cakes, and enormous amounts of coffee and tea were consumed. Now everyone is asking if I intend to do it again next year – we’ll see!!

Then of course we had the Great South Run last weekend. A 10 mile run around the streets ofPortsmouthand Southsea with 24,000 other folks, all raising money for good causes.

As usual we got there late. Everyone was trying to drive intoPortsmouthat the same time – hence we crawled for 4 miles. Never mind, we found a parking space and walked a couple of miles to the starting line. Had time for a quick photo and off they went – leaving me holding the coats and feeling a bit miffed that I couldn’t do it this year because of my knee.

The Fudge family performed brilliantly – and competitively – running in record times (for them) and raising £2,200 for St Margaret’s Hospice in Yeovil.

We are hoping to have a Bicnic at the hospice this week and hand over our big fat cheque.

Enough of the fun, we have been at work too (honest!) and have launched our amazing online party packs – you name the party and we have a special pack of biscuits to feed your guests.

I’ve also been busy compiling my very first pickling and preserving booklet – it’s got some of my favourite recipes and tips, with room to put your favourites too. It will be launching on the website soon!

We have some amazing gifts too – just in time for Christmas – which could very well help you solve those difficult gift decisions. There is something for the most discerning of folks.

Do have a look on the website, www.fudges.co.uk – we’ve teamed up with Downton Abbey and there are wonderful prizes to be won!

Well the ‘build’ at home goes on and although I don’t really believe the builders they tell me all will be finished by the end of the month. But there’s so much left to do!! I tried to strip wallpaper but fused all the lights up stairs so Graham and I felt like Wee Willie Winkie with candles and torches when going to bed. It’s all looking great though and we are so pleased with the quality of work. I say, if you want a job done well then feed them tea and biscuits – the favourites seem to be the Hazelnut and Milk Chocolate.

We are talking Valentine’s now and we have some great ideas to spoil your ‘lovey dovey’ one. All involve chocolate – well there’s a surprise!

I’m off home now to fuse a few more lights and take some biscuits back for the ‘boys’ so hopefully we’ll catch up again next week.

Oh yes, don’t forget we will be at Taste of Christmas in London from the 2^nd – 4^th December.

Come and see us, we’d love to meet you.

Have a good week!

Sue x

I can’t believe we are into autumn and I’m hastily picking elderberries, blackberries and sloes before the birds get to them. As I haven’t had a lot of time to make any preserves, I’m freezing the berries down until I can spare a few minutes. I hate to waste anything.

Talking of waste, as you all well know we are building an extension at home and, in preparation for major disruption in my kitchen, I’ve been sorting my cupboards and am embarrassed to say I had tins at the back with a best before date of 2004! Hence my need to have a larder so that ‘I can see everything and everything has a place’ – that is definitely going to be my motto from now onwards. I keep losing things, as our old backdoor has been demolished and we’ve taken to using the ‘posh’ front door and now I’m forever losing my keys. The cats have their very own backdoor cat flap and plank to walk up into it, as well as a very convenient litter tray (builders sand!!!) just outside. I hate to think what the builders say to them when we are not there!

Oh yes, there has been the small issue of the well – which the builders found when digging the footings for the glass link – right outside our backdoor. They don’t seem to be bothered by it but ‘MOAT’ does come to mind. Goodness knows what they are going to do with it and I definitely don’t want to look at it like some bright sparks have been suggesting to me – you know the helpful comments like ‘why don’t you stick some glass over it’ and ‘you won’t have far to fetch the water!!!!’ Hmmmmmm.

This is an insect house which I’ve put on my wish list for my new garden! I saw it at the National Gardening Show a couple of weeks ago – easy peasy to make. I do hope the guys at the bakery haven’t got rid of all the broken pallets!

On the subject of the National Gardening Show, I just had to show you all this pic of the giant vegetable class – I’ve never seen anything like it!!!

I’ve taken to visiting quite a few Retro Fairs just recently – this is important for research of course!! My plans are coming together for the Retro and Craft Fair I’m organising in aid of our lovely church and Help for Heroes in October, and I’ve had great fun with friends checking them all out. I went to one over the weekend and found the most amazing mink coat – it’s hardly been worn and is so glamorous… I managed to get it for £40 – what a bargain. I do hope it snows! I also found a beautiful turquoise pressed glass dish and it will be absolutely perfect filled with soaps and lovely things for my new family bathroom. Ooohhhh it’s all coming together. I sure you can feel the excitement is mounting!

Number two grandchild is on its way – or rather should have been last Friday! Poor Sarah, she’s very bored now and we are all on tenterhooks. Little Izzy is wondering if she really will have a new brother or sister and she told her nursery key worker that ‘mummy will probably have the baby on the carpet’ and daddy is pretty laid back by it all. Oh happy days!!

The Fudge family team are all gearing up for the Great South Run at the end of October – minus me I hasten to add. I’m pretty miffed about it. I had ‘the op’ on my knee three weeks ago and there is no way I’m going to be able to run this year so will have to make do with being the proverbial coat holder and main cheer leader. Oh well, next year maybe.

We are all gearing up to host the British Confectioners Association AGM at the weekend (these folks are the top confectioners in the country and they are bringing their wives) It’s a pretty important thing for us to get it right. So there will be a whole host of events we’ve organised to keep everyone happy, including go karting (they are all pretty competitive), dancing, eating and a visit to our bakery and the ladies will be doing a cooking course at Minterne House and wine tasting too, then a wobble around the gardens! (Must remember to tell the ladies to bring walking shoes.) We have had to organise the whole weekend with military precision so we hope nothing goes wrong – not for the want of trying anyway.

Have just come back from the Sturminster Cheese Festival here inDorset. It’s an amazing little show with wonderful food and local beer and cider. It is really well attended and our little stand was buzzing from the word go. Local crafts and the Morris men along with food demos all make up a really fun family day. Needless to say we sold out each day and left exhausted to boot!

Two more shows to go this year – one at Parnham House in Beaminster on 15^th /16^th October and the Taste of Christmas at Excel in Docklands 2/4^th Dec. Both promise to be excellent days out with celebrity chefs, demonstrations and fun to be had by all – including us. Put these dates in your diary.

Oh yes, nearly forgot, we will be at the Virgin Wine Tasting event in London(Horticultural Halls) on 9^th Oct. See you there I hope!

All for now and catch up very soon.

Sue x

Now, that man in uniform was actually a helicopter pilot on the Dawn to Dusk challenge collecting products that have won 3 gold stars at this year’s Great Taste Awards from all over the country. Well, it was all very exciting as our Cheddar Wafers won the coveted award. The whole bakery emptied out to watch the two helicopters land in our car park (no biscuits were burnt!!!) Watch the video for yourselves here! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dwoUO6ka6I

The biscuits were then taken with other award-winning foods to a special place where they were to cook a wonderful meal for invited guests.

Fudges has won eight gold stars this year in total – wow!!

Six of us Fudges had a wonderful (and well deserved) rest in Portugal. Reading became top priority, as was cooling off in the pool and of course soaking up the vino (… or was that the sun?!) A fine time was had by all, arriving back at Bristol refreshed and looking as if we had had a holiday!!

While we were away, my lovely friends stoically spread the Fudges word at our local village Food Festival at Leigh. The gorgeous Valentine Warner opened the show and I’m led to believe my friends made sure the dashing Valentine visited the stand, made him eat Florentines and pose for photos – they tell me he enjoyed every minute. I believe them – the photos were all a bit shaky though!!! What does that tell you?

There was hardly time to put the cases down, so as soon as the washing was dry we were packing them again and off up to the International Cheese Festival at Nantwich. This is a two-day event held in what is said to be the largest temporary building (tent!!) in Europe. It was HUGE!!!! I have never seen so many cheeses (over 3000) and they came from all over the world.

It was a wonderful event. We had no idea what to expect, and as we were one of the sponsors we were well looked after. The first day was spent chatting to cheese purveyors and cheese makers, having lunch (of course) which was fantastic with over 800 people sat down. I had never seen anything quite like it. James Martin and his dog Fudge were there as was Gino D’Acampo, both cooking – they were extremely popular, very approachable and great fun. One of the best things about this show was the amount of pairing we could do with the cheese and, of course, our biscuits.

Once the show was over, Graham and I drove to North Yorkshire to see the girls and Steve drove the van back toDorset. We spent a lovely few sunny days (it usually rains I’m told) exploringRichmond and the Dales. It is so lovely up there and the locals are very friendly. So many places to walk and take a bicnic, enjoying far reaching views across Wensleydale and Swaledale.

One of the reasons we went further north was to support our youngest daughter (you know the fit one). She was taking part in the Ironman challenge in Bolton. Well she did it, bless her, and made us so proud and emotional watching her run up the final stretch on the big screen with everyone cheering – I’ve got a lump just thinking about it. She did it in 11hrs 23mins and just missed out on qualifying for Ironman in Hawaii. But wow, what a thing to do.

The next challenge was on Friday when we installed our Bicnic Bench at Lickey Hills in Birmingham. Up we went with the car laden with biscuits, a rug or two and flasks – it was a fantastic day and the bench looks fab!

The scaffolding went up the other day – the lorry arrived with one man and his dog just as I was leaving to come to the bakery – not sure how the dog will help!!! Hope the cats don’t see him.

The knee is no better so a little operation next week will have me running again in no time. I’m frustrated because the rest of the family are already in training for the Great South Run. I jolly well will do it even if I walk round on crutches. Just you wait and see!! More about that next week.

Have a great week!

Sue x

Last week we were at the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show, fighting off the rain.  Luckily it didn’t rain cats and dogs like Taste of London, but it was a bit on the soggy-side.  Even so, our biscuits were flying off the shelves of our stand and we got the chance to chat to lots of lovely people and make new friends.

I managed to visit the bees in the edible garden area.  It’s made me even more desperate to keep bees myself… along with some chickens of course!!  The whole show was fabulous and I managed to get lots of ideas for my garden, so I just need to find some more hours in the day to start work on new projects.

Have lots of photos, just need to wade through them and choose which to upload…  keep your eyes peeled!

Have a good week!

Sue x

Tuesday saw me up in Manchester at a wine, cheese and biscuit tasting evening. I know it sounds an awful long way to go but Fudges is one of the key sponsors of the International Cheese Festival in Nantwich at the end of July. As part of this celebration of cheese we were invited to come along to a very nice little wine bar in the centre of Manchester (The Grill in the Alley) to match wines, cheeses and our biscuits together. I learnt so much from the cheese experts (wanted to get to the wine but there just wasn’t enough time!!!) and we managed with the help of the guests to find the perfect biscuit to go with the perfect cheese. I’m still drooling over the Brie de Meaux – it was beautiful. The Cheddar Wafers accompanied all the wines, especially the Prosecco as the guests arrived.

The same evening Steve was up at The Porsche Garage in Bournemouth, helping to entertain invited guests. The garage owners were so clever in matching cars to businesses – for instance, they parked an Orange Carrera next to the Fudges stand and the chocolate brown Porsche next to the chocolate makers. What a great idea! Needless to say there was a lot ‘coveting’ going on in the Fudges camp!!!

Being away from home while attending events throughout the summer makes my garden pretty hard to deal with – I’ve noticed the slugs have devastated the spring cabbages and the pigeons have eaten all the Brussels sprouts. I should have put the new netting over them sooner (I’d bought it especially for that purpose at the Edible Gardening Show). Ah well, all I can say is their need must have been greater than mine – mind you, shotgun does come to mind!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did manage to pick most of my blackcurrants before the blackbirds stole their share and have made one of many blackcurrant cakes – here’s the recipe…

You’ll need an 8’’ or 20cm square tin or Pyrex or something similar in size.

Heat oven to 350° (I’m not very good with electric ovens – all my cakes are baked in the baking oven of my aga, regardless of heat – seems to work!!)

175g caster sugar

175g butter (softened)

3 eggs

½ tsp vanilla essence (natural)

175g self-raising flour – (add and sieve ½ tsp baking powder together)

200g blackcurrants – fresh or still frozen

1) Cream the sugar and butter until light and fluffy with the vanilla

2) Break eggs in bowl and beat together and add a little at a time to the butter and sugar and beat well

3) Fold the sieved flour and baking powder into the mixture with a metal spoon

4) Lastly, fold the blackcurrants (fresh or still frozen) in gently to the mixture

5) Turn into tin or the container and spread roughly

6) Bake for approx. 30mins on middle shelf until golden and firm to the touch

7) When baked, sprinkle with caster sugar

To serve – with crème fraiche and gently simmered blackcurrants – 200g blackcurrants, 50g caster sugar and 50ml water – gently simmer for 10 mins in a saucepan.

Mmmmmm delicious…. have a go!  

Don’t forget that warm stewed blackcurrants, as cooked above, goes so well with creamy vanilla ice cream.

This Thursday we’ve a helicopter landing in our bakery car park – I’m so excited… I’ll tell you more next week about why they’ve chosen us!!!

And last but not least, we are off to RHS Hampton Court Flower Show at the beginning of next week. We will have our lovely stand and Bicnic spot in the Country Living Marquee – maybe you are going?

If you are, do come and say hello, have a sit and chat and try some great biscuits – maybe take some home…

Whatever you are doing have a great time and I’ll tell you what has been happening atHampton Court– oh yes, and that helicopter!! – I do love a man in uniform!!!

Sue x

We’re at Taste of London at the moment with our Bicnic sampling stand.  Despite the wet weather and soggy feet (I’m glad I brought my flip flops!) it’s been going fantastically well!!  On occasions we’ve had to hold the stand down as it’s so breezy we feel like we’re going to blow away!!

Our lovely biscuits and treats have gone down a storm with the London foodies and we’ve nattered and nibbled away, making lots of new friends.  We’re getting a bit low on stock but have another delivery coming tomorrow, so don’t panic if you’re coming to see us over the weekend as there will be plenty to go round!!  Managed to get a few pics…

As well as screaming up to London every day, I’ve managed to pick lots of juicy blackcurrants and I’m planning on making my favourite blackcurrant cake next week.  Don’t worry, I’ll share the recipe with you – if you’ll keep it a secret

Must dash, the stand’s getting busy and there are lots of mouths to feed and people to chat to!!

Have a great weekend… let’s hope it’s not too wet!!

Sue x

The housework has gone to pot and the garden is having to survive. Thank goodness we had some rain over the weekend so at least the plants are looking great, if a little unruly, not to mention the slug invasion – I’ll let you into a secret – my poor husband nearly swallowed a whole slug on Sunday night!!! Well it wasn’t my fault of course because I had washed the lettuce, but the little critter was hiding in there somewhere. He took it in good part but I notice now every mouthful is being scrutinised.

Our little tabby ‘Primrose’ didn’t help, she came in completely black, not a patch of white fur to be seen – in fact we didn’t recognise her. We couldn’t understand it until a light bulb moment happened and we realised that she had taken to playing in the old stainless steel oven pipes that had been saved from the demo. She then had the audacity to sleep on our bed!!!

All that aside we had a great four days at the Royal Bath and West Show in Somerset feeding the 150,000 with our biscuits and treats. Everyone loved them and it was good to see lots of Fudges hampers being carried around the showground. I love this show as it takes me back to my childhood when the first stop was always the animals followed by the foodhall! The shires were fabulous, real gentle giants and the cattle quaffed and fluffy. Many of the farmers came in to tell us their stories about the judging and the prizes they had won. Steve and I got to have a glass or two with the Countess of Wessex and to watch the Kings Hussars strut their stuff – it was such fun and so memorable.

Sunday morning at 7am saw Graham and I on Weymouthbeach watching our youngest daughter (you know, THE FIT ONE) compete in an half Iron Man – swim, cycle and run. Having watched her swim in the sea – a little guiltily with a bacon sandwich and hot cuppa in the warm café – we chased her all over East Dorset cheering her as she went! Bless her she was the 4^th girl past the line – she was really pleased with her performance and so were we.

Next week sees us at Taste of London inRegentsPark–we have free tickets to give away so have a look on our Facebook page. If you are going come and see us for a natter and a nibble. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fudges-Bakery/116760758363900

I told you things are a bit crazy but hey – I wouldn’t have it any other way!!!

Whatever you are doing have a great time.

Sue x

It’s a great ‘arty’place and was where Virgin wines were holding their wine tasting day. Fudges were invited along to bring lovely Cheddar Wafers and Straws to be eaten in between glasses of rather nice wine – A fantastic response! Birmingham loves Fudges! We sold out pretty quickly which made for a fast getaway at the end of the day but I went home tired but very elated.

Graham and I managed to chill out and enjoy a Bicnic up on Batcombe after a rather good Sunday Lunch treated to us by Great Grandad.

This is where we come to chill out and enjoy the view and that’s where we live down in the Blackmore Vale – aren’t we lucky?

Nearly there with the demo at the old bakery with a crane taking away the old flour silo this morning – it all looked a bit hairy but as always plenty of advice was being given – I was just holding my breath and making cups of tea!!! Now we will be able to start building in the next couple of weeks. Hurrah!

Off to Stourhead Farmshop in Wiltshire  tomorrow – they are our shop of the month. I love Stourhead, the farmshop and its gardens at anytime of year.

The last big re-organisation in the Bakery is happening this weekend, so its all hands on deck – it will make a huge difference and will allow for the new oven to be installed later in June.

The Fudge Family is off to the Bath and West Show next week. Maybe we will see you there in The Food Marquee. Do come along and say hello and have a nibble too. We will have a great range of biscuits to try and to take home – all in a Bicnic Bag.

Hope the weather improves over the weekend and you enjoy every moment.

It’ll be a busy one but I’m sure I will!

Sue x

I’ve just spent the best part of a week in the Malvern Hills near Worcester at the fantastic RHS Spring Gardening Show. Mind you, I didn’t get much chance to have a good look around but did manage a quick reccie with my camera around the show gardens – after dressing the Fudges stand in the Country Living tent of course. Everyone loved the biscuits and our lovely bicnic bags – best-sellers were our Dark Chocolate Florentines, Lemon Zest with White Belgian Chocolate biscuits and Jalapeño Wafers- yum!

It did rain though which was a bit of a shame! Jackie didn’t want to get her hair wet so asked for a carrier bag for head – we are always willing to help!!! Here she is showing off one of our best-sellers!

I love the Country Living tent with all those wonderful things to buy for home and self! My purse starts buzzing as soon as I get near. Needless to say we were so busy entertaining everyone on our stand that my purse didn’t get much of a chance to enjoy a bit of retail therapy. I did a little though, and sneaked off to Hus and Hem (www.husandhem.co.uk ) positioned opposite us – they sell wonderful and unusual Scandinavian things for the home. Next door to us was the lovely Julia Thompson (www.juliathompson.net) with her wooden creations. She kept me laughing for the whole show!

Have a look too at the Jonny’s sister website (www.jonnyssister.co.uk ) – they sell beautiful letter cushions and banners, along with wooden signs – my favourite being ‘What if the Hokey Cokey IS what it’s all about’.  Excellent!! What if it is? It made me smile every time I walked past to get a cuppa!!

I was inspired by the gardens at the show and I’m now planning to make a solitary bee and insect home in my new garden wall – when it’s built! Brilliant idea!

Got home at 10 o’clock on Sunday night and was greeted by my tired husband saying he’d cleared everything ready for the demo but he had a bonfire to light – so, with a glass of wine in one hand and a box of matches in the other, off we went up the garden path – I love a good bonfire – JOB DONE!!!

The demolition has started at home and all I can say after three days in is… I hope it’s over soon! The dust, the rubble, the mess, the noise – ooh the list is endless. The first morning the cats had no idea what was going on – they catapulted through the cat flap at the speed of bullets. Chivers was already covered in oil from the machines. A lot of licking and grooming is gonna have to take place to resume a snowy white and ginger coat. No wonder he spent the rest of the day in bed – what a life!! They tell me it’s going to take a week to finish. Good job I have loads to do at the bakery over the next few days.

Oh yes, look out for the creamy white elderflowers in the hedgerows to make Elderflower Cordial next week. I’ve just come to the end of my batch from last year. I froze it in plastic bottles and just took one out as and when I needed some. What about making some and freezing in to ice cube trays? Then all you do is just take out what you want when you want it – simples! Will post the recipe shortly!

I ‘m off to Birmingham this weekend to take some lovely Cheddar Wafers and Straws to the Virgin Wine tasting day – I hope to see you there.

Great Granddad Fudge is treating us to lunch on Sunday – good oh. I hope the weather is good as I have the need to get out walking on Batcombe Hill.

Whatever you are doing have fun this weekend – I’m sure I will!!

Sue x