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At this year’s National Wedding Show Brides Up North was nearly found amidst a pile of pale pink crumbs after a feeding frenzy, but luckily the lovely ladies from The English Rose Bakery engaged me in polite conversation instead (whilst tossing the occasional macaroon my way!). The brand new Featured Suppliers tell Brides Up North all about the confectionery a la mode. It seems that macaroons are having a moment!
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How did The English Rose Bakery begin?
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Head baker and founder of The English Rose Bakery Emma Brown worked in Switzerland for 4 years in design in which time she had the opportunity to travel and at New Year 2008/9 visited New York and was struck by The Magnolia Bakery and here, the first inkling of the business began to form in the shape of cupcakes, which then still were yet to see their full renaissance. It would however be a further 6 months, by which time the cupcake had almost saturated the market, before a trip to Zurich and a visit to Laduree fully polarised the vision for the business. Within 3 months of this she had handed in her notice at work and moved home.
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The first few months were spent back in Newcastle, her home town practicing the macaroon technique, making all kinds of mess in her poor parents’ kitchen! In May 2010 she made the decision that Manchester was to be the next city to experience the burgeoning macaroon revival and moved back to where she had studied.
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During these formative times while she was still really perfecting the recipe and hadn’t even approached any producers markets, new friend and renowned chef Robert Owen Brown asked her to supply macaroons and accompany him to a Forever Manchester charity event hosted at Ian Simpson’s apartment
at the top of The Hilton tower, attended by 50 of the top business names in the area. This was the point of no return and it was this massive deadline that forced everything to come together, and all within a week. On the same day Robert’s restaurant, The Mark Addy was hosting the ambassadors event for the Manchester Food and Drink Festival and, returning there after the event promptly became acquainted with Mark Garner of Manchester Confidential and Siobahn Hanley of The Food and Drink Festival.
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Fortunately she had some spares and these two meetings lead to both a piece on Manchester
Confidential and being asked to provide a Macaroon tier for the launch of the Food and Drink Festival later that year.
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The next step was to begin to source packaging, for which her design background came in very handy, at the same time researching and testing various producers markets all around the Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Cheshire area, to find the ones most suitable for The English Rose Bakery to trade at and for a period had to hand cut the boxes while the actual ones were being produced.
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This continued for the following few months with sustained research and development of new flavours culminating in being invited to provide the first macaroon tier for the opening of The Parlour in Chorlton.
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Shortly after this, in that same bar Emma happened to bump into Wendy Lewis an ex-work colleague whom she worked with in buying through her industrial placement year at Uni. They caught up and decided to meet for dinner, where the initial thoughts of taking on a business partner began to seed and they promptly set up a meeting to discuss becoming partners as Wendy’s buying experience could marry perfectly with Emma’s creative background. Once things were finalised they moved into a kitchen above The Castle Hotel in Manchester and their first huge order of 40 mini tiers came in.
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Since then The English Rose Bakery have regularly provided macaroons to restaurants and shops in Manchester most notably for Louis Vuitton in Selfridges. They have had their first wedding and have been building a loyal and regular customer base via the online shop and at regular markets, where they
regularly sell out. In December, just prior to the launch of the online shop, they were contacted by the Good Food Channel requesting that they supply a box of macaroons for the Market Kitchen television show, which was aired on the 2nd of December. The English Rose Bakery are continuing to attend country fairs and wedding fairs and are now looking to expand their product range and are actively on the lookout for their first premises.
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What is your background?
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Emma has a design background with a degree in Textile Design and Wendy has a business background and has worked in Buying since graduating in Organisation and Management Studies.
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Where is The English Rose Bakery based?
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We are based above The Castle Hotel on Oldham Street, Manchester City Centre, where we have a kitchen and bake all our goodies! However, we sell our products at local food markets around the Manchester area, including The Real Food Market in Piccadilly Gardens, Chorlton and Didsbury producers’ markets. You can also buy online at http://www.englishrosebakery.com/shop/
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We regularly attend Wedding Fayres in the area, people interested in having macaroons for their wedding can drop us an email or a call to arrange a meeting at our kitchen where we can discuss all options available including flavours, colours etc. We can deliver anywhere in the U.K.
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What type of macaroons can you make?
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We have a range of 20 macaroons in the following flavours:
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English Rose
Salted Caramel
Pistachio
Lemon
Strawberries and Cream
Raspberry
Black Cherry
Vanilla
Hazelnut
Earl Grey
Cinnamon
Chocolate
Chocolate Orange
Honey and Orange
Apricot
Blueberry
Coffee and Caramel
Coconut
Turkish Delight
Anise
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We can offer wedding favours, macaroon tiers and macaroon cakes.
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*Wedding Favours*
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You can choose between our list of flavours, colours, tissue, ribbon and box colour. We usually package our macaroons in pairs in individual boxes with tissue inside and ribbon tied round the outside. (see picture attached) we can also add a personal message inside the favour box for an additional
cost. Alternatively we do mini macaroons which are packaged in a clear bag and tied with a ribbon. Wedding favours range from £2.50 -£4.50.
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*Macaroon Tiers*
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Macaroon tiers are the most fashionable wedding piece at the moment. These come in a range of sizes starting from 30cm up to around 1 metre tall. All you have to do is choose your macaroon flavours and colours.
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The macaroon tiers are a fabulous alternative to a wedding cake if you are looking for something a bit different. Your guests can just pick off the macaroons from the tower after dinner, perfect to nibble on with a cup of tea or coffee.
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Tiers start from £40 (which can be used as table centrepieces) and go up to £250 depending upon size and number of macaroons.
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Great for the coeliac bride (or brides relatives)as all are gluten free.
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The tiers also make great table centrepieces, these are mini tiers with around 60 mini macaroons attached and they are priced at £40 each ,
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*Macaroon Cakes*
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The macaroons cakes look stunning on their own or paired with a macaroon tier. The traditional sponge or fruit cake is covered in royal icing and then mini macaroons are attached to the outside of the cake for decoration.
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Macaroon cakes start from £100 upwards depending upon the size of the cake and number of macaroons.
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The English Rose Bakery also provide macaroons to have at your venue on vintage cake stands and then it’s just £1 per macaroon. View our range of available cake stands on our Gallery Pages on our website.
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Which is your favourite flavour?
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It has to be our signature ‘English Rose’ flavour we think! But we are biased! Salted Caramel is definitely the favourite with our customers!
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How long does a batch of macaroons take to make?
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The process of making a macaroon is quite a complicated process and took months of practise to perfect. These days we are getting faster but it is still a 3 day process. The eggs are separated on the first day and left to rest overnight, the following day the macaroons are made and then left to dry out overnight. The third day is spent making the fillings and then filling the macaroons. It would take 3 days to prepare for a wedding or a producers’ market.
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What celebrity’s wedding would you like to make macaroons for and why? What flavour would you choose?
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Obviously it would be amazing to be a part of the Royal wedding this year and it would have to be English Rose to match the lovely Kate.
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We think the macaroon towers are very elegant and something really unique and special! We would have made a two colour tier with English Rose and Vanilla macaroons and paired it with a traditional cutting cake with mini macaroons in a range of colours and flavours.
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What are macaroons and where do they come from?
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The English Rose Bakery specialise in the French “macaron”. *Macaroon* is a type of light, baked confection, described as either small cakes or meringue-like cookies depending on their consistency. The original macaroon was a "small sweet cake consisting largely of ground almonds similar to Italian or Moroccan amaretti.
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The English word *macaroon* and French *macaron* come from the Italian *maccarone* or*maccherone*. This word is itself derived from *ammaccare*, meaning *crush* or *beat*,used here in reference to the almond paste which is the principal ingredient.
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Most recipes call for egg whites (usually whipped to stiff peaks), with ground or powdered nuts, generally almonds. Alternatively, coconuts can be used.
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Most people imagine The Scottish macaroon which is a sweet confection with a thick velvety centre covered in chocolate and topped with roasted coconut. Only our coconut flavoured macaroons have coconut in them.
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How far in advance should Brides Up North place their order?
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We would be able to do an order last minute if we don’t already have something booked in but usually 6 weeks is enough notice for us.
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Can you do a discount for Brides Up North readers?
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Brides Up North can receive at 10% discount if they book before September 2011.
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How can Brides Up North get in touch with you ?
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Website:www.englishrosebakery.com
Email us on hello@englishrosebakery.com
Call us on 07790170702 or 07896123452
Facebook
Twitter : englishrosebkry
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Why should a Bride chose macaroons rather than a traditional wedding cake/ other favours?
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It what the fashionistas are eating don’t you know!
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Why do you read and like Brides Up North?
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Because we’re Northern belles thru and thru and like to support local businesses, we hope your brides do too!
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They certainly do ladies! Brides Up North loves to champion Northern suppliers… particularly if they send me macaroons…(hint, hint)…
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The English Rose Bakery is a Brides Up North Featured Supplier
Contact Brides Up North to submit your business as a Featured Supplier
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