Description

Better.TV's Rhiannon Ally talks to Lisa Thomas and Martha Swift about their famous cupcakes that have been bought by celebrities like Elton John.

Transcript

Cupcake Decorating Tips Rhiannon Ally: With all those gatherings you’ll be attending this summer, why not top them off with some homemade cupcakes? Don’t these look delicious? Lisa Thomas and Martha Swift, the owners of the Primrose Bakery in London and the Authors of Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery are both here today to share their best kept summer cupcake decorating secrets. Welcome ladies! Martha Swift: Hi! Lisa Thomas: Hi! Thank you. Rhiannon Ally: Nice to have you both! First, I got to ask, how did you go from being two moms baking for the neighborhood kids to baking for celebs like Jude Law, Elton John, how did that happen? Lisa Thomas: It just happened the other night. Martha Swift: A lot of hard work. We started off in Lisa’s own kitchen and we just decide. We realized that in London at that time you couldn’t find the amazing cupcakes and cakes that you have here in the States. So, we really felt like there was a market for them. So, we decided to give it a go and see and we’ve been doing a lot of baking, we had kids of our own and we literally just started. We started supplying a local deli that opened and after two years, we were approached by Selfridges, a big town store in London to supply them. And then we were lucky enough to be able to open our first shop and the shop is in an area that is home to quite a lot of celebrities. So, they are some of our customers. Rhiannon Ally: So, who frequents -- your place the most? Martha Swift: Well, lots of different people. Jude Law is a customer of ours. Rhiannon Ally: Which one does Jude Law like? What’s his favorite? Martha Swift: I think he likes lemon actually. Rhiannon Ally: Oh yum! And that’s what we have here today, I love that! So, what’s the secret behind these cupcakes? Lisa Thomas: I think that it’s keeping to natural ingredients, no preservatives, no artificial colorings and flavorings and actually, just keeping it baked in small quantities like you do with your mom at home or you might have done and we keep it like it’s a domestic kitchen actually. Rhiannon Ally: Can you show us some of your secrets today for people at home? Lisa Thomas: Of course, yes. Rhiannon Ally: Sounds good, what are we going to make? Lisa Thomas: So, we have three with us today, three that are really easy. The recipes are in the book that’s really easy enough to follow through. Today, we brought our raspberry, white chocolate, lemon, fresh lime and coconut. They are all things that you can just get in your local supermarket to decorate with. Rhiannon Ally: Which is important for people at home. They want things that are easy to get and you’re going to actually show us a pretty cool technique with the first one. Martha Swift: With the raspberry ones, yeah. So, with the sponge -- the sponge already has raspberry jam in it but you can add just to increase a bit of the raspberry flavor and you scoop out some of the sponge. Rhiannon Ally: So, you just scoop it right out of the middle of it? Martha Swift: Yeah, just with a teaspoon, make a small hole. Rhiannon Ally: So, just as much as you [Voice Overlap] Lisa Thomas: Yeah, as mush as you want to do. Rhiannon Ally: Can you use other types of fruits as well? Martha Swift: You could do it with strawberry as well. That would be fine and then just take up some small amount and put it right into the center of the cake. Rhiannon Ally: That’s easy enough and then you just top it off with the frosting? Martha Swift: With the frosting, yeah. So, you just have it in them. When you cut open, it looks very pretty as well because it just got that nice color swell through it. Rhiannon Ally: That is easy enough. I can actually do that! So, all fresh ingredients, they all smell delicious -- I got to tell you. Thank you so much ladies for stopping by today and for lots of other great summer cupcake recipes and creative decorating tips, pick up Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery.