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Fitzbillies Simnel Cake Although simnel cakes are an Easter tradition dating back to the Middle Ages, Fitzbillies is one of the few bakeries currently baking them, making it a stand out Easter dessert this year. In recent years simnel cakes have experienced a revival in popularity, as beloved by Marry Berry, making them perfect for family gatherings and gifts, and for those wanting to branch out from chocolate eggs and other common seasonal treats.   A lighter fruit cake than traditional Christmas cake, simnel cakes are a delicious blend of rich fruit topped and layered with marzipan for a perfect balance of warm spices, classic sultana studded cake, and sweet icing. Our cakes are baked in our local artisanal bakery using premium fruits and spices and homemake marzipan. The result? A uniquely luxurious seasonal cake. History Simnel cake has been around for hundreds of years and was originally made during Mothering Sunday and associated with lent. The cake is now widely eaten on Easter through the UK. Traditonal round simnel cakes are decorated with 11 marzipan balls, symbolising the 11 apostles, excluding Judas. Fitzbillies offers a simnel bar cake.  Where to Buy Fitzbillies' simnel cake is available in-store at our local branches and online for a limited time for April. Enjoy the special Easter treat to share with your family or friends or simply bite into one yourself. Order your simnel cake today while is supplies last!

Cambridge offers a multitude of ways to celebrate Christmas and get into the holiday spirit, whether you are looking for a family outing, a place to find your holiday gifts, or a way soak in the magic of the season. Find what you need all in one place. CHRISTMAS MARKETS Christmas Market on Parker's Piece: Experience Parker’s Piece transformed into a Christmas village including a market, bar, heated domes and ice skating. Dates: 14th November – 5th January, open 7 days a week Ely Christmas Gift and Food Fair: Located next the historic cathedral just 15 miles outside Cambridge, Ely’s Christmas Market is considered one of East Anglia’s best Christmas shopping experiences. Dates: 21st – 23rd November, open times vary by day Image courtesy of: https://www.elycathedral.org/events/christmas-fair-2024 ACTIVITIES Ice Skating Located within the Christmas Market on Parker’s Piece, this will be Cambridge’s largest outdoor ice rink. Skating lessons and student nights are offered. Dates: 14th November to 5th January, open 7 days a week Image courtesy of: https://www.christmasincambridge.co.uk/ice-skating FESTIVE FOOD Fitzbillies Combine a visit to Fitzbillies with winter activities in our wonderful city! Our 104-year-old bakery has a wide collection of Christmas treats available only for the winter season. Make sure to check out these highlights from our Christmas collection: Our award-winning mince pies are our best selling Christmas treat. With a crumbly shortcrust pastry that surrounds brandy-soaked mincemeat, they are sure to delight. Our Christmas cake features an eye-catching decoration of King's College below seasonal stars, while a almondy marzipan icing covers this classic winter fruit cake. CHRISTMAS LIGHTS Cambridge City Street Lights Head to the Market Square this Sunday, 17th November, to see the Big Switch On for the city centre lights! Sparkling Christmas lights can also be found on the following city centre streets: Rose Crescent: This beautiful street connecting Market and Trinity Street has lights strung from above. Green Street: This classic street known for its independent shops runs between St John's Street and Trinity Street The Guildhall on the Market Square: The Market Square features a Christmas tree and the hall is illuminated at night with colourful projections. Image courtesy of: https://fieldandlawn.com/news/transforming-cambridge-city-centre-for-christmas Botanical Garden Lights Taking place at the Cambridge University Botanical Gardens, the event will “create a beautiful landscape for visitors to enjoy after dark”. The trail will include a light tunnel, colourful floating lilies, and presents a fully immersive experience that will transport visitors to an enchanted forest. Dates: Thursdays to Sundays, 29 November to 21 December Image courtesy of: https://www.velvetmag.co.uk/win/win-a-family-ticket-worth-60-to-cambridge-botanic-ligh-9381480/ (Keith Heppell) Wimpole Estate The 17th century estate will offer an evening “trail that brings the estate to life with over a million twinkling lights and seasonal sounds”, as well carol singing Christmas shopping. During the day, the house will be adorned with Christmas décor and plenty of festive food available. Dates: 22 November to 1 January Image courtesy of: https://www.visitcambridge.org/event/christmas-at-wimpole  FAMILY FRIENDLY Santa’s Grotto Also included in the Christmas Market on Parker’s Piece, Santa and his helpers will set up residence to meet, take pictures and give presents to children. Dates: 14th November – 5th January, open 7 days a week Image courtesy of: https://www.christmasincambridge.co.uk/santas-grotto Christmas Crafts Offered in the Cambridge Botanical Gardens, Children can make Christmas decorations using natural materials from the garden. Christmas Crafts Date: Saturday 7 December 2024, 10am - 1pm COMMUNITY EVENTS Mill Road Winter Fair Now in its 20th year, the Mill Road Winter Fair is a beloved tradition. It remains a festive way “to celebrate the variety of cultures represented by the residents and traders of the neighbourhood”. Expect a bustling street of music, local art, and international food. Date: 7th December 10:30 – 4:30 Image courtesy of: https://www.thevarsityhotel.co.uk/news/mill-road-winter-fair/ CAROL SINGING A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols This world-famous carol service has taken place in Kings College Chapel since 1918 and is broadcast to millions of people every year. Due to its vast popularity, limited public tickets are allocated by registaring on a ballot by November 15. Date: 24th December, 3:00pm  Image courtsey of: https://www.wxxiclassical.org/2023-11-29/a-festival-of-nine-lessons-and-carols-2023-sun-12-24-10-00am-live-from-kings-college-cambridge Comment below with your favourite Christmas traditions and how you plan to celebrate Christmas in Cambridge!

Ready for Stir Up Sunday? Find out more about this British tradition and discover the Fitzbillies Christmas cake recipe so that you can bake your own in time for Christmas.

Over the summer the newest branch of Fitzbillies, 15 King’s Parade, will be home to an exhibition of paintings of Life at Fitzbillies by local artist, Naomi Tomkys OBE. The 15 large oil paintings celebrate the customers, bakers, characters and cakes of Fitzbillies. The subjects include customers in Fitzbillies coffee shops and restaurant, meeting friends; members of the Fitzbillies front of house team, behind their counters stocked with beautiful cakes, taking orders and serving customers and the Fitzbillies bakers, making the Chelsea buns early in the morning. Naomi Tomkys said, ‘As a Cambridge artist I’d been thinking about capturing the essence of Fitzbillies in a series of drawings and paintings for ages. Wondering how fun it might be to immortalise Fitzbillies’ food, staff, history, patrons, vibe and even some drawings behind the scenes. Alison, the owner, and the whole Fitzbillies team loved the idea. So I’ve spent the last couple of months sketching, watercolouring and photographing at Fitzbillies. I didn’t realise how good I would have to get a painting cakes!' Alison Wright, owner of Fitzbillies said, ‘It’s been an absolute pleasure having Naomi painting the business. It is easy to stop noticing when you are in an environment everyday and she has made me see anew the beauty of what we bake and particularly appreciate the moments of simple pleasure that are shared over our coffee, buns, cakes and brunch in our branches. I feel very proud of our whole team for the wonderful baked goods, food and coffee that they make and the environment they create for customers. The exhibition will run at Fitzbillies King’s Parade until Monday 8th October. The paintings are available for sale – but hurry, six have sold already!   A little about Naomi Tomkys OBE “For as long as I can remember, I’ve played the same people-watching game. I imagine what strangers walking past do, who they love and what’s in their pockets. My work is a development of this simple idea, I paint characters, I try to present their stories. I want my work to muster a familiar happiness, to laugh at the small things and feel a little warmer”.  - Naomi Tomkys Naomi Tomkys grew up in London where she attended Central St. Martins School of Art. She now lives and works in Cambridgeshire and her inspiration comes from the day-to-day moments that make her smile. Recent paintings including scenes from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge food trucks, punting, tourists, Lammas Land Pool and Strawberry Fair.     Tomkys has shown in group and one-man shows both nationally and internationally, including The Mall Gallery, Sak and Catto Contemporary, Stapleford Granary, AKA Gallery and in exhibitions and collections as far afield as Texas, Los Angeles and Dubai. She exhibits regularly with the Cambridge Drawing Society and Open Studios and recently received an Arts Council Award to develop her practice. Website: https://tomkys.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/naomitomkys/ Saatchi: https://www.saatchiart.com/naomitomkys 

You may have noticed Chelsea buns making the headlines in recent weeks, after Greg Hands, MP for Chelsea and Fulham, lamented the demise of his childhood favourite. Fortunately, Chelsea buns are alive and well in Cambridge here at Fitzbillies. We haven’t stopped baking them since we opened our doors in 1920, and we even use the same original recipe. Not only did Mr Hands make a trip to Cambridge for our famous Chelsea buns, we were also delighted that so many of our friends and customers pointed him in our direction! Anyone not in Cambridge can rest assured that our Chelsea buns can be delivered to any address in the UK. We even have a bake-at-home range, so that you can enjoy the freshly baked buns in your own home. (And impress any guests!)   Bringing Chelsea buns into the 21st century While many of our customers love the nostalgia of our traditional Chelsea bun recipe, we’ve also developed delicious flavours for those who want to mix it up a bit. In our branches, the blueberry cheesecake buns are popular; online, it’s the cinnamon buns with cream cheese icing that are second only to the original. Both take inspiration from bakers across the pond, combined with our 100+ years of baking bun perfection.   Chelsea buns are here to stay Fitzbillies will continue to bake our famous Chelsea buns every morning, every day, right here in our Cambridge bakery. (We take a break for Christmas Day and Boxing Day.) So whether Greg Hands is successful in his campaign to revive the buns throughout the land or not, we will be steadfast in keeping this traditional pastry alive.   >>> Visit us in Cambridge >>> Order online

Want to get ahead with your menu planning this Christmas? Spreading your shopping out between now and the start of the festive season is key to making sure you’ve got all the treats and gifts you need. 

The humble iced cake is making a star return to the baking world. Remember those sticky iced cakes you used to have in the school canteen, sprinkled with hundreds and thousands? That’s just the start of our love of cake and it doesn’t end there. Variations on iced cakes are becoming a hot trend in the baking world. They are the centrepiece of celebrations large and small: birthdays, tea parties, weddings and christenings. A few years ago, a two-layer cake with a few candles would have sufficed. But a combination of Instagram and The Great British Bake off has resulted in cake inflation. Flavour favourites  Lemon cake is our most popular flavour for weddings, parties and summer celebrations. We make it in every size - a simple iced sponge cake to serve for tea to a five-tier wedding cake covered in fresh fruit, roses and macarons. Keeping our chocolate cake moist We have worked continuously on our chocolate cake recipe over the years. Sometimes we test four recipes on customers in the shop - the existing recipe and three new variants. The brief to the bakers is always ‘more moist and less sweet’. Our ultimate chocolate cake won the taste test with its dense, moist texture and dark chocolatey taste.  Red velvet  Who doesn’t love a bit of cream cheese frosting paired with a deep red sponge? We first started making our red velvet cake four or five years ago and it flies out of the shop as soon as we put it on the counter. Those who know it love it. Those who don’t think it’s a bit weird to put so much food colouring in a cake, but they are quickly converted after their first bite.  Icing options  We use 3 different types of icing depending on the cake we are decorating: cream cheese icing, chocolate cream cheese icing and traditional  buttercream icing.  Here’s our tried and tested recipe for cream cheese icing for you to make and enjoy at home. Cream cheese icing recipe This recipe makes enough to fill, crumb coat and cover a four-layer 18cm cake or 24 cupcakes.  750g icing sugar 300g cream cheese 75g unsalted butter, very soft   Sift the icing sugar into a bowl of a stand mixer Add the cream cheese, butter and any flavouring of your choice. Put a tea towel over the mixer and start on a slow speed, mix until combined. If the icing has a good texture, you can start icing as soon as the cake is completely cold. If it seems a bit soft, put it in the fridge for an hour.  We also use this cream cheese icing recipe for our Bake at home cinnamon buns.

With the true British Summertime having arrived, what better way to embrace it than enjoying the great outdoors with friends and family and, of course, fantastic food. Whether it’s in your garden, a park or at the seaside, it’s the perfect time to shake out those picnic blankets and get the party started.    But what is a summer gathering without a great selection of tasty sweet and savoury treats? We’ve pulled together some of our favourite menu ideas to provide inspiration for the perfect spread, most of which you can find at local independent bakeries.    The Savouries:  - Sausage rolls: Always a firm favourite, make them smaller to create bite size morsels or supersize them for a more filling snack.  - Savoury tart: There are infinite ways to vary a tart or quiche but it's worth remembering this simple rule; most tarts work well with one main vegetable, one aromatic element and one cheese filling. Our favourite combination is onion, marjoram & goats’ cheese.   - A selection of finger sandwiches: Smoked salmon on malted brown bread or cucumber & cream cheese on white bread are always a staple at our garden parties.   - Salad: An easy way to make use of those vegetables in your garden or fridge and a great accompaniment to any savoury staple. At Fitzbillies we have our Cajun marinated chicken breast served with mango mayonnaise dressing on a bed of house salad with sourdough croutons.     Sweet treats:  - Brownies: Everyone loves a brownie, but why not enhance the taste further with flavours such as salted caramel or double dark chocolate.  - Shortbread: A classic biscuit that is perfect to dunk in your tea, so simple to make or to buy.  - Macarons: Coordinate your party theme with a colourful tray of macaroons, a small treat to satisfy that sweet craving.    Fancy cakes:  Everyone loves cake, but which flavour to serve? Why not impress your guests with a selection of mini loaf cakes such as lemon, chocolate, carrot, or red velvet? Or if you want to add even more flavour to your summer spread try mixing combinations together such as a vanilla cake with raspberry filling and icing, or a lemon cake with fresh berries as filling or decoration.   Every party needs a show stopping centrepiece, so why not wow your guests with a macaron tower where the biggest challenge will be deciding how many tiers to include!   Have you seen our recipe blogs? Take a look at our shortbread blog for a step-by-step guide on how to make your own.   Or why not buy our book to always have the recipes close to you.  

As a nation we have only a few food rituals, the Sunday roast, the big breakfast fry up and of course the afternoon tea.  It is the latter that we seem to take true delight in. It brings its own bit of a magic each and every time the stand of handmade treats is delivered to a table.     So when did it truly begin?  The concept of Afternoon Tea appeared during the mid-19th century. Anna, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, introduced the concept of Afternoon Tea in 1840. The Duchess got hungry around four o’clock in the afternoon, and the evening meal wasn’t until 8 pm. That meant there was a long time between lunch and dinner. Because no one wants to wait that long to eat, the Duchess asked for a tray of tea, bread, butter and cake during the late afternoon. It became a habit of hers, and she began inviting friends to join her in her room to enjoy this afternoon snack.   A typical menu for Afternoon tea nowadays includes:  Several types of fresh finger sandwiches, such as cucumber, smoked salmon with cream cheese, egg mayonnaise with cress and coronation chicken.  Scones with clotted cream and preserves  Various homemade cakes and pastries  A selection of teas   There are many items associated with an afternoon tea, but it is fair to say that if the scones, cream and jam were to be missed it would leave it feeling rather incomplete.   Afternoon teas are one of the biggest attractions at Fitzbillies in Cambridge. We serve the full, traditional afternoon tea at our main branch in Trumpington St, and a simpler, but equally delicious cream tea at out smaller branch in Bridge St. Below is the recipe we use to create our classic fruit scones, packed with juicy sultanas should you want to create your very own Afternoon tea.    Fitzbillies Fruit Scone Recipe  Makes 10 large or 14 small scones  460g plain flour, plus extra for dusting  30g baking powder  50g caster sugar  80g unsalted butter, cold and cubed  2 medium eggs  200ml milk, full fat or semi skimmed  120g sultanas    Preheat the oven to 190ºC (170º fan) and line a baking sheet with baking parchment.  Mix together the flour, baking powder and caster sugar in a large bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingertips.  Lightly beat together the eggs and milk in a separate bowl. Reserve a tablespoon of the milk and egg mix to glaze the top of the scones.  Add the liquid to the dry mix and bring together with your hands. Stir in the sultanas last so that they don't get broken up.  Turn the mixture out onto a lightly floured work surface and give it the very lightest of kneads - just two folds should do - to make sure it comes together evenly. Roll out to 3cm thick and cut out to the size you want. We use a 7cm cutter for large scones and a 5cm cutter for smaller scones.  Place the scones spaced well apart on the lined baking sheet and brush with the reserved beaten milk and egg.   Bake the large scones for 15-20 minutes and the smaller scones for 12-15 minutes until they are lightly golden.  Serve either warm or cold, with jam and clotted cream, obviously. 

Shortbread is perhaps the simplest of all baking. So it has to be perfect. And given the first note of shortbread in history comes from the 12th Century, it has taken a while to perfect.  The story of shortbread begins with the medieval “biscuit bread”. Any leftover dough from bread making was dried out in a low oven until it hardened into a type of rusk: the word “biscuit” comes from Italy, meaning “twice cooked”. Gradually the yeast in the bread was replaced by butter, and biscuit bread developed into shortbread. By the time Mary, Queen of Scots came into power in the 16th century, the shortbread had developed to resemble something closer to what we see today; a sweeter, more crumbly and ‘short’ biscuit. That ‘shortness’ in the name comes from the large amount of fat in the dough, which makes the dough more difficult to work with. Shortbread was a labour-intensive bake, an expensive luxury and for ordinary people, shortbread was a rare and special treat reserved just for special occasions. In Shetland it was traditional to break a decorated shortbread cake over the head of a new bride on the threshold of her new home. With a good recipe, you can make shortbread rounds or petticoat tails. Adding caraway seeds, chocolate chips or different flavours such as lemon and orange are all variations on the traditional recipe we use. But at Fitzbillies, we keep it nice and simple. Except for at Christmas, when we like to add crunchy walnuts to the mix.  Makes 24 fingers or rounds 185g unsalted butter, softened 100g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling Generous pinch of salt 270g plain flour, plus extra for dusting if you are making biscuit shapes 25g ground rice Demerara sugar, if you are rolling round biscuits For walnut shortbread 100g walnuts, chopped   Preheat the oven to 180oC (160oC fan). If making shortbread fingers, grease and line a 30cm x 20cm traybake tin. Alternatively, if you are making round shortbread biscuits or other shapes, line baking sheets with baking parchment. Cream the butter, sugar and salt in a large bowl until well mixed (but not to the pale and fluffy stage). Add the flour and ground rice and mix until just combined. Add the chopped walnuts at this stage if you are making walnut shortbread. If making shortbread fingers, press the mixture firmly into the baking tin with the palm of your hand and prick it all over with a fork. If making round shortbread biscuits, roll the dough into a fat sausage, the roll the sausage in demerara sugar, wrap it in cling film and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.  When you take it out of the fridge, remove the cling film and use a sharp knife to cut 1cm-thick rounds of shortbread. Place these, spaced apart, on lined baking sheets. If making shortbread shapes, like the shortbread hearts we have in the shop, roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to 6mm thick and cut out shapes using your desired cutter. Repeat with any leftover dough. Place these, spaced apart, on lined baking sheets. Bake the shortbread until golden for about 25 minutes for shortbread fingers, 12 minutes for round biscuits and 8-10 minutes for shortbread hearts or other shapes. When baked, remove from the oven, transfer to a cooling rack and sprinkle with caster sugar.  If making shortbread fingers, slice in the tin before transferring to the cooling rack.

Fitzbillies first opened its doors in Cambridge on the 4th of October 1920.  This date was no coincidence – it was the first Monday of the university term, and then, just as now, the owners would have known that they needed to be ready for this busy time or year.  Fast forward 100 years or so, and our two cafes and separate bakery remain as busy as ever, with our loyal and brilliant team working early hours and late nights to ensure that we only ever serve the freshest Fitzbillies treats to all. No matter what time, there’s something happening in some part of the place all day and most of the night….  9pm The Fitzbillies day starts at 9pm when the night bakers arrive at the bakery, change into their whites and inspect the list for that nights bake.  Our online and wholesale customers plan and place their orders right up till 6pm, so the bakers never know what they will find.  Hundreds of dinner rolls for college feasts, brioche buns for burgers in gastropubs and always loaves and loaves of sourdough brand for toast at Fitzbillies.  The bakers get started with the weighing out, then mixing and proving, and by 1am, loaves are beginning to come out of the big stone floored ovens and into the wire cooling baskets. 4am The last batches are coming out of the ovens and the packers and drivers arrive to get the bread ready for delivery.  This is the time to visit the bakery.  The wire colling baskets are filled with every kind of bread and stacked up high.  Thousands of loaves and rolls.  By 7am it will all be gone.  The entire production cycle in ten hours, every night.  6am The cake bakers arrive.  Their first job is to roll the Chelsea bun dough, which has been set to prove hours earlier by the night bakers.  They roll it super-thin so that is covers an entire table, slather it with brown sugar and currants and roll it up tight.  Then it’s cut into perfectly sized slices, and laid into one of the tins to bake.  Once the buns are out of the oven, they are brushed with Fitzbillies exclusive warm bun syrup and flipped over so that the bottoms can be syrup-ed too!  These are the last things to be loaded onto the vans to get to the shops before opening time. 7am As the vans leave the bakery, laden with breads and baked goods, for the short drive into town, the Fitzbillies chefs are arriving to start preparing breakfast and the baristas are switching on coffee machines.  They help the driver unload the vans, wheeling in trolleys laden with trays and trays of Chelsea buns.  Time to display them on the counters, just before opening. 8am Doors open at the coffee shops and the regular morning customer who work nearby call in on their way to the office.  Bacon rolls, homemade granola with yoghurt and fruit compote and pastries exchange hands as the commuters grab their Fitzbillies favourites.  The bicycle rush hour starts from 8.45 as waves and waves of undergraduates stream past both branches on their way to labs, classes, tutorials and lectures, calling into Trumpington Street in a desperate attempt to get their orders in before lectures start in the Mill Lane Lecture Rooms. 10am Whilst a more leisurely crowd arrives for a proper breakfast in our coffee shops, our on-line team back at the bakery are in full swing, printing on-line orders, packing gifts-a-plenty and buns galore.  Our bakers are getting on with trays of gooey brownies and delicious date slices; sponge cake bases are filled and iced; macarons are baked in every colour of the rainbow and bespoke cakes are hand-finished to make ready for collection too.  All orders are baked fresh and dispatched on the same day, and so the bakery is buzzing with activity all morning long. 12 noon  Time for lunch. Midday shoppers, visitors, academics, meeting colleagues. The cafes fill up to capacity and queues form at the takeaway counters. The chefs are prepped and at their stations, waiting for the tickets to come off the printer. The specials of the day are on the blackboards – todays soup, savoury tart, salads.  The regular customers have their favourites: eggs benedict, chicken and asparagus salad and buck rarebit. And a Full English seems to work at any time of day. 2.30-3.30pm   We call this the lull in our cafes, and if you arrive at this time, you might be mistaken for thinking it was a slow day. But we know it’s simply time for us to regroup and wait for the tea-time rush. Back at the bakery though, the rush is on to make sure every order is perfectly packed, accurately labelled and ready to be collected by our couriers. 4pm Scone o’clock. Magically a queue appears at the door. Well, if you found yourself in Cambridge at 4pm with a few moments or an hour to spare, where would you go? Tea can be anything from an elegant traditional English afternoon tea with a glass of champagne to a brownie in a takeaway bag to eat on the way home. And it’s not just our customers on their way home, hundreds of Fitzbillies packages are also now travelling to their new homes, ready to be enjoyed by many. 6pm Closing time at the branches and clean down time at the bakery. Counters cleared and cleaned, chairs up on tables, bun trays washed and stacked for the next day and everyone’s out by 7.30pm. Unbelievable good fortune not to work at night if you are a chef or a waiter. 7.30pn to 9pm This is the only time of day when the business isn’t working, so we take a deep breath and prepare for it all to start again, as the night bakers leave their homes and make their way to the bakery, and hundreds of Fitzbillies fans log on to the web to order their next batch of goodies.

The humble Chelsea bun first entered history around 1700, endorsed by royalty as a fashionable indulgence, thanks to the The Chelsea Bun House, an attraction that was set on the approach road to Ranleigh Gardens, a playground of GeorgianLondon and enjoyed a rapid rise in popularity.   According to John Timbs, writing in 1855 for the “Curiosities of London” during his time as editor of The Illustrated London news:  ‘It was customary for the Royal Family and the nobility and gentry to visit the Bun-house in the morning.  George II., Queen Caroline and the princesses frequently honoured the proprietor, Richard Hands, with their company; as did George III and Queen Charlotte; her majesty presented Mrs.Hands with a silver gallon mug with five guineas in it’  Richard Hands became known as “Captain Bun,” and his success with The Bun House was continued long after his death, thanks to his impressive wife.  During the rampant “bun-slinging” time of Easter, Mrs. Hands often resorted to pulling down her shutters, and commanding a large police presence as she sold upward of 240,000 buns on Good Friday 1839 alone, with around 250 “slingers” taken off by the ever-present police!  Shortly after this event, the bun-house was sold and demolished, but the Chelsea bun lived on, as a popular line in bakeries all over the country.    What makes the perfect Chelsea bun? The Chelsea buns creation as a commercial-scale bakery product made it almost impossible to replicate in even the best equipped home kitchen, despite its relative ease of production in a bakery.  The standard yeast dough is usually enriched with eggs and used not only for Chelsea buns, but also for other kinds of rolls and fancy small loaves.  Easy to embellish, the dough is rolled out on a long bench, smeared with butter, sprinkled with dried fruit and spices and rolled into a long sausage.  At Fitzbillies, this is where the skill of our head baker Gill comes into its own.  Using an ancient butcher’s sabre that’s believed to be as old as the bakery itself, Gill takes a quick look at the sausage and cuts its perfectly into the exact number to fit the tray. Every time. No mistakes. And no, we don’t know how she does it either.   These bun sized portions beautifully expose the swirls of delicious fruit and generous spices.  Packed tightly into a high sided baking tray, and allowed to rise into a soft, squishy uneven squares, they are baked as “batch” – allowing each bun to touch and connect during the baking process.   These days we bake our buns in slightly smaller trays than our predecessors, creating 40 buns per tray, arranged in 8 rows of 5, and not too heavy for our team to lug in and out of our ovens! What makes our buns so unique? Once perfectly baked and golden, our buns are smothered in our secret sticky sauce.  Whilst many of the more traditional recipes suggested a sprinkling of sugar, or light coats of icing, we think we hit the mark when we created our glaze.  Made exclusively for us in a specialist sugar refinery, our bun syrup is one of most carefully guarded secrets, and we think we’ve found the most perfect balance of sweetness, but not cloyingly sweet, extra sticky and with some of the smoky mysterious character of molasses. We can’t be the only ones who think we got it so right – after all, we go through over 10 tonnes of it every year!  And with over 100 years of experience perfecting the Fitzbillies Chelsea bun, we are as confident that it would delight royalty just as much today as it did at its inception back in the 1800’s.   After all, over 250,000 Fitzbillies bun-eaters each year can’t be wrong can they?