ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all I want to thank my husband, Bruno Vergauwen, who is, as always, responsible for the beautiful design and cover of this book. Creating a book all by yourself involves trial and error, and after many late nights and early mornings his help was indispensable. Starting in a clean kitchen ensures that the day starts well right away. Thanks for the many clean-ups and support! Thanks to Mum and Dad for not getting annoyed with me for locking myself away until the book was finished.

This book is extra special for me thanks to Becky Colletti, who was so generous in gifting me the recipe for my wedding fruit cake. The recipe for Aunt Betty’s gingerbread came to me because of a chance meeting with Joanne Harold on the Eurostar. In the meantime, it has become one of our favourite recipes, gradually becoming our own family recipe – thank you for that.

Thanks to Christian Reynolds, Jayne Cross, Charlotte Pike, Elinor Hill and Wim Rubbens for sharing their family Christmas cake recipes and to everyone who told me their nostalgic food memories. Your stories brought the bakes to life and flavoured them with your words. My thanks also to Sarah Pettegree for her advice about the Pork pies. Thanks Diane G. and Miss South for our chat about Northern Irish bakes, and Del Sneddon for pointing me towards Aberdeen Rowies.

I also received help from a number of other people so that I didn’t always have to bake alone; thanks to food stylist Kathy Kordalis, Stefan de Bruyne, Vanessa Vermandel and Julie van den Driesschen. Baking is so much more fun when you can share a plate and talk about the flavours and textures together.

In addition, thanks to my Bake Off colleague, pastry chef and chocolatier Herman van Dender, who was always there for me whenever I needed technical advice.

I also collected photos and postcards from old bakeries for this book. For that I also thank those who sent me photos of their still-existing bakeries: Billingtons, who have been making gingerbread since 1817, and Lewis Freeman, sixth-generation baker at Dunn’s Bakery in London, not only for the photos, but also for his stories.

Thank you Greetje for the beautiful profile photos, and Sarah for our wedding photo in England. Thank you Clarence Court for being wonderfully crazy enough to send me a box of your beautiful eggs. See the result here.

Thank you to Esse and Adek for ensuring that my beloved cooking range was placed on time to work on this book.

Thanks to The Guild of Fine Food and the Farrand Family for their support and for giving me the chance to learn so much about flavours for the past seven years being a judge for the Great Taste Awards and the World Cheese Awards.

Thanks to my publisher, Corinne Roberts, and everyone else at Murdoch Books.

Thank you Sheila Dillon and Dan Saladino from the BBC Radio 4 Food Programme, for their words of support for my books.

Thanks to Jamie Oliver for his continued support since I started writing in 2011. When he called my blog, which started this whole journey, his favourite blog in the Sunday Times in 2013, it gave me a much-needed boost of confidence and motivation.

Thank you Dr. Annie Gray for your foreword, for your friendship, your support and for being the coolest historian on the planet.

Thank you to Ils for welcoming me into your village bakery on nightly visits when I was a teenager. The smells of the bakery and the hustle and bustle of baking have most likely been the trigger for what I do today. I remember I brought you food from the party next door as an excuse, because the bakery was where I really wanted to be. Thanks for all your baking advice over the past 20 years.

Thank you to everyone I have forgotten, but who I really appreciate.