Emma Bridgewater x Biscuiteers Mother's Day Collection

Now we know first-hand how much love and care goes into creating hand-made gifts and so when it came to taking inspiration for our Mother's Day collection we looked no further than our pals at Emma Bridgewater.

Just like our biscuits, which are hand-iced right here in London, Emma Bridgewater’s beautiful pottery is all hand-made in the in Stoke on Trent. By joining forces for Mother’s Day we’re combining one of the nation’s favourite pairings – tea and biscuits – and celebrates all that we hold dear in terms of beautiful, hand crafted gifts that are perfect to celebrate Mum.

The result is our beautiful, new, Time for Tea collections. We absolutely loved recreating Emma Bridgewater’s iconic pink heart pottery - one of the brand’s most loved and bestselling designs. Unashamedly pretty and pink, pink hearts was inspired by drifts of confetti left on the pavement after a wedding.

To share a little more about the collaboration, let’s step behind-the-scenes…

All our delicious biscuits are made by the talented icers and bakers at the Ministry of Biscuits. Every biscuit is lovingly hand-iced the old-fashioned way, one at a time.

- A Biscuiteers biscuit, of course, starts its life as dough. First our bakers mix in the ingredients - flour, butter, sugar, egg, vanilla pods and golden syrup. Once mixed, the dough is flattened down, and chilled until firm, ready to be cut into the lovely Time for Tea shapes. Our biscuits are then baked just long enough for them to turn golden brown to perfect the Biscuiteers texture - somewhere between the snap of gingerbread and the crumble of a shortbread.
Now for the exciting part.....
- The biscuits are ready to be iced! Using a piping bag our icers first outline the shape of the mug, teapot or spoon in white line icing, a type of royal icing with a consistency just like toothpaste. This creates a barrier just strong enough to hold the next layer which is runny flood icing.

- Using a small squeezy bottle our icers flood the shape with the icing before popping any air bubbles with a cocktail stick to ensure a smooth finish. Now they’re returned to the oven, this second bake is at a much lower temperature and it’s how we create that satisfying, glossy finish.

- Finally, to create the look of Emma Bridgewater's beautiful hand-painted hearts, our icers finish the biscuits by delicately piping hearts in red and pink line icing.

- Once the biscuits are dried, they are ready to be hand-packed snugly into our hand-illustrated boxes or keepsake tins and enjoyed by the lucky recipients.
- An Emma Bridgewater mug begins its life as clay dug from the ground in Devon, Cornwall, Wales or Staffordshire. The clay is then skilfully poured into mug moulds, and then left for around 24 hours to dry.

- Once the mug is removed from the mould, it is ready to be fettled and sponged. As the two halves of the mould leave a seam, this must be smoothed away by fettlers. Then the mugs will be sponged to make sure their surface is wonderfully smooth.

- After this process is complete, the mug is ready for its very first firing, then it’s time to decorate. For this design, hand cut sponges are dabbed into red and pink paints and applied carefully to the mug, layering up to create the pattern. After the decorators have finished, the mugs are glazed ready to be put into one of the five factory kilns at 950 degrees Celsius for around seven hours.

For a gift sure to make mum smile this Mother’s Day, the Time for Tea Gift Box combines the pottery and biscuit versions of ‘pink hearts’ together, the collection is also available as a luxe biscuit tin and letterbox biscuits.