Crumbs by Collette
Bake Creatively
A home baker sharing the love of baking by creating innovative 3D biscuit model cutt
15/10/2023
Amazing work SmartCookie Sam on the 🥳🎉👩🏼🍳
09/09/2023
6 weeks of being new parents to this little bundle of joy (and massive sleep thief) 💙
I’ve really wanted to take this time over the last several weeks to settle into being a new mum to our little boy. We’re so thrilled that he’s doing well - although he is hating this September heat wave…🤣
Over the last week or so I’ve managed to get back into a little baking. I’ve always found baking to be very therapeutic and right now I’m enjoying baking more than ever in the margins of being at home with our little bear. He will happily be in the baby carrier (not at the minute whilst it’s so hot of course) whilst I potter around the kitchen baking a few treats for to take to work…🥰
He and I also take a daily trip to the Post Office to take our customer orders which I’m really grateful continue to come in despite my lack of activity!
I’m going to be slowly getting back into being present on here, I’m sorry for the prolonged absence - but it’s been so important to put our family first 💕
We have been working on some new products for release over the coming months, looking forward to sharing details with you soon…
22/04/2023
I’m really sorry to have been so quiet, but we do have some exciting news…
Baby Jamlet is on the way (James + Collette = Jamlet) 🥰
After trying for a little while, we’ve been so very lucky. I have however, been quite unwell - lots of sickness which lasted until almost 20 weeks! 😳
We’re now at 25 weeks and I’m thankfully feeling much better. We now also know he’s going to be a mini James 💙
Just to make 2023 even less stressful 🙄 we’re also going to be moving again…we’ve been looking to buy our home closer to family for when this tiny bear arrives in early August!
Awwwww 🥰 - this is my friend Hannah, Founder and CEO at Toddle (fabulous protective skincare for children, and other great gifts).
She’s this incredible entrepreneur (did you see her on Dragon’s Den?! She was amazing) who I worked with in the RAF before she left to pursue this exciting venture!
It’s great to be able to chat all things business together, she is absolutely right, it’s really tough out there at the minute so we’re sticking together!
Thanks for the shout out and all the love! 💕
23/10/2022
This is baking friendship at its best! 🥰
A couple of years ago at the start of I was lucky to come across a fabulous baker and her niece, fellow avid home baker 👩🏻🍳
Pickle aka Catalina was a young baker who took on our Little Bakes Challenge and smashed it, quickly moving onto 100 Bakes! She’s got the baking skills many home bakers aspire to and all for such a junior baker, I’m blown away! So when Pickle’s mum, and I were chatting about a baking collab, I was on board!
Today Catalina and I entered a little baking competition in London and we only went and got 1st place out of 12 teams! 🏆
What is incredible about this is that I didn’t do much, Pickle was all over it and I was so very proud of how great the bake turned out!
This isn’t a star baker in the making, she’s a star baker now! ⭐️ Thanks for being my baking partner and for a fabulous time baking together!
Here’s to next time! 🎉
20/06/2022
Love this so much! 🥰
James’s birthday cake! 🦕🦖
I’m a big fan of the little party hats on these dinosaurs! 🥰
I used the trusty marbled fondant technique (I’ll post a video of this soon) for the cake, which was full on Biscoff inside! 😍
What do you think? Are you a fan of marbled fondant - or do you steer clear of fondant cakes?! ⬇️
31/05/2022
More sugar anyone?! 🤣
The answer to homemade doughnuts is now yes in our house! 🙄 Filled doughnuts are going to be on my personal baking goals list too…
Thanks so much for everyone’s input at the weekend for suggestions for the next although we’ll need a new challenge name… suggestions below please…⬇️😆
23/05/2022
🍩Biscoff donuts!😍
Just when I worry that I’m running out of Biscoff bakes to try…😉
I’m a big doughnut fan so I’ve been keen to try baked and fried ones! These ones were baked, the fried doughnuts will be coming up…
I loved using the Wilton 6 ring doughnut tin for these, super easy and the rings were pretty perfect! 🙌
Have you tried making your own doughnuts?! I’d love to hear some recipe ideas…
09/05/2022
Oh hello there! 👋 It’s me, Collette and here’s James the other (some might say better) half of Crumbs by Collette!
I’m acutely aware that I haven’t shown my face all that much recently…(I’ll get back to making reels very soon though). I popped some stories up over the weekend somewhat explain my recent absence…
I’ve been on Court Martial Duties for the last couple of weeks, which is similar to jury duty. It’s been a really interesting duty and I’ve been very keen to ensure that it’s had my full attention and that has meant that I’ve hardly touched my phone in the day.
James and I are also in pursuit of living together properly for the very first time! We got together in February 2018 and we’ve been sent to different bits of the UK for our jobs so we‘ve not properly lived together yet…we’re both currently selling our homes to be able to buy somewhere together, which is very exciting! 🥰
We started Crumbs by Collette together 2 years ago and I’m continually astounded and grateful for all the support we continue to have from this incredible online baking community, our friends, and family.
We’ve brought out 6 products so far - and sold 15,000 of them to bakers in 18 countries around the world! 🤯
Thank you for being here, I’m sorry I’ve not been very active recently, but I’m so grateful for you all being here when I log on to see your fabulous bakes and all round inspiration! 💕
🐝 I do love the ♥️ bee trail on this anniversary cake!
So lovely to make this cake for a friend who wanted to surprise her wife with a cake for their anniversary! The theme was based on their wedding cake, blues, gold, bees, flowers 🥰
The cake flavour of choice was coffee and walnut and it came together really well!
What do you think?
🙋🏼♀️ Who has also had a ganachetrophe?!
Ganache can be tricky, it’s all about the ratios of chocolate and cream. With different ratios of the same ingredients, you can get completely different consistencies from truffles, frosting to chocolate drip! 😍
I’ve found that when a ganachetrophe has occurred there’s a few ways to try to fix it:
- try heating the mixture over a hot water bath, making sure you continue to whisk it!
- don’t add more cream…if the mixture is grainy it’s because there’s already too much fat in it so instead of adding more cream, try a little milk…
- add more chocolate, if the ganache is still warm you can add little amounts of chocolate to the mix to bring the oils and the fats back together (yum) but of course you’re then changing the ratios and your ganache is likely to be stiffer depending on how much chocolate you add…
Have you got another ganachetrophe top tip?! ☺️ Add it below ⬇️
25/04/2022
🏴 This tower of shortbread 😍
I love shortbread so much, I love the buttery-ness, I love the crumbliness, I love the simplicity! I added some dark chocolate chips to these little shortbread bites and then ate quite a few…🙄🤣
Is shortbread the best simple bake? Or is it something else…🤔
17/04/2022
Biscoff Viennese Whirls…😬
As far as I’ve been able to see online this is an original bake…and I judge myself for not having made them sooner…in the middle is Biscoff buttercream topped with Biscoff spread…😍
These are light, buttery and full of Biscoff, what’s not to love?! I shared these bites of deliciousness with my neighbour who very kindly takes in parcels for me when I’m not in, which is super helpful when you’re in the military like me and travelling quite a lot! 🥰
Will you give them a try? Might need to save this post for future Biscoff inspiration…😉♥️
SHARE if you agree! It’s not just me is it? 😉
I expect I’m in good company here…don’t get me wrong - my day job in the Royal Air Force is rewarding in lots of ways, but I do enjoy the creative outlet that baking gives me.
I find it very therapeutic…don’t you?
Have you got an alternative definition? I’d love to hear it ⬇️
12/04/2022
🥯Homemade bagels!😍
🤔 Well I do think these are looking pretty professional (what do you think bagel expert ?) which are thanks to these little bagel moulds I found online…➡️
You boil and bake the bagels on the moulds and voilá circular bagels with round holes! 🙌🥰
I bought a set of 6 moulds for £14, which if you’re going to make a lot of bagels is worth it, but if you only plan to make them once or twice, I’m sure bagels shaped by hand will taste just the same…😉
08/04/2022
Mini Eggs are the best Easter chocolate…do you agree? What Easter chocolate do you like best?
I could eat bags and bags of Mini Eggs and I find them really versatile for lots of Easter bakes from rocky road, fudge, cupcakes and this cake…😍
If you’ve got a good Mini Egg recipe or baking idea you’ve tried, I’d love to hear about it! ⬇️
01/04/2022
This tip is so simple you’ll want to try it with lots of shapes! ♥️⭐️🌈🐰
I asked on my stories whether you’d like a step by step post on how to get a shape within your biscuit dough and the response was an overwhelming YES! 🙌
So here it is, take a peek 👀 through and save for later! ➡️🥰
Also - please let me know how you get on if you give it a go, I’d love to see your take on this idea! 💕
29/03/2022
🦓🐅🐘🦒Still not over these beauties - both the cakes and party animals! 😍😆
I am really pleased with how this all came together - 2 cakes, one for each of James’s twin nephews on their first birthday - one vanilla and one chocolate!
The little party hats were handmade, but I did find a market for them on Etsy if anyone is in need of any! 🥳
If you missed it, I popped a post out a little while ago on how to get sharp fondant edges…
If you are keen to make a safari themed cake in the future, save this post and perhaps use it for a little inspiration 🥰 I couldn’t find anything just like this online when I was searching…😉
What do you think?
22/03/2022
🎉 Tada! Here as promised is a step by step post on how to make Caramel/Creme Egg Scotch Eggs!
I saw these last year and had to make them! I spent a little time working out the best method and there’s 2 main ways to achieve a similar outcome:
1. Use shop bought cake/brownie and mix with chocolate buttercream to make a cake truffle texture mixture to coat the eggs. This is good for you to be able to control the consistency of the mixture, but you’ll be bound flavour wise to the quality of the cake/brownie you use…
2. This way, bake your own brownie! Just underbake it a little so that it is fudgy - and remember to not put any chocolate chunks/buttons/chips in. Once you’ve got through a little messiness you can set your brownie in the fridge and have delicious chocolatey scotch eggs! 😍
My go to brownie recipe is the BBC Good Food Best Ever Brownies, DM me if you’d like me to send you the link.
Let me know if you give them a go! They’re great for an Easter treat and I made some with my 14 year old niece at the weekend! 🥰
17/03/2022
Caramel egg scotch eggs! A whole Cadbury caramel egg encased in homemade brownie and rolled in crushed Biscoff 😍
I saw a fellow baker make creme egg scotch eggs last Easter and immediately put them on my list of absolute musts for this year!
I rolled them in crushed Biscoff crumbs to make them look like proper scotch eggs and I’m really happy with how they turned out! 🥰
Are you keen to see a step by step on how to make these? Happy to show you…😉
Incase you missed this reel on Instagram…😉
We’ve all been there right?! When I get my bake on, I end up with 2 bowls of dough proving, something in the muffin tin, a batch of cookies on the go…and a whole load of washing up! 🤦🏼♀️
I’d love to know it’s not just me…if this is you too please comment below, or if you know a baker guilty of this, feel free to tag them! ⬇️🥰
05/03/2022
Bakers here’s another baking hack, perfect if you’re taking on the 🎉
Unless you’re planning on making battenbergs all the time, which I’m sure many of us aren’t…🙄 you might not want to invest in a bespoke battenberg tin. You’ll be pleased to hear you don’t need to!
I make my battenberg in a DIY tin using my square trusty brownie tin, some folded foil and bulldog clips! Really easy! Take a little scroll through the photos to see ➡️
You can also use this to separate sponges to make Angel slices too! 💛💖
Make sure you save this post for later as a reminder and share if you want to spread the news of this hack for other bakers to see! 🙌
Take your fondant cakes to the next level by sharpening that top edge to look crisp and professional! 😍
As I mentioned in my stories yesterday there different techniques of how to achieve this, I’ve also used the upside down method which I’ll record another time, but this is one way of achieving that sharp edge…
It’s simple, you only need 2 smoothers which I picked up for a couple of pounds from - although if you only have one I have previously used a bit of semi rigid plastic as a substitute before (a cut out rectangle from an old document wallet).
The technique is to lay one flat on top and one flat on the side and motion them towards each other - be careful not to pinch it though. I keep the one on the side higher than the top of the cake and push the one on top out towards it (take a look at the video to see what I mean ➡️).
The overall sharp effect comes from repeating this motion all around the cake over and over. You’ll see from the time lapse that this took a little time, around 10-15 mins to get this far, although I’ve been known to spend 30 mins getting the edge looking perfect! 😳🥰
Save this post for later and why not give it a try on your next fondant cake and see what a difference it makes to the overall effect?!
I’d love to see your sharpened fondant cakes…🙌
23/02/2022
Want to make super easy fudge at home?! ⬇️
Traditionally fudge is made with careful sugar temperature control, but fudge with condensed milk can be made by throwing all of the ingredients in at once with no requirement for a thermometer! It sounds easy and it really is! 🙌
Once you’ve made a few batches you can start experimenting with your own recipe ideas, but a great range of recipes for condensed milk fudge can be found on the fabulous website! 🥰
Homemade fudge is great for a homemade gift, perhaps for Mother’s Day which is coming up in the UK next month…
Let me know if you give it a go, I promise you won’t regret it! 😉
🥚Egg crisis averted! 🙌🎉
Your dough has started proving and you’ve forgotten to add the egg it mentioned in the recipe…
Firstly…it’s not a huge drama, worst things have happened at sea and all that, it’s not like you’ve forgotten the yeast! 🤦🏼♀️😆
You have 2 options:
1. Leave it out, so you’ll have a heavier texture, the dough may not rise as well but it’ll taste ok.
2. Add the egg as soon as you remember - this is a bit of a messy business, you end up with a slimy mess which can only really be worked with the hands and extra flour, but you can salvage the situation!
I have done both 1 and 2 and both turned out just fine. If you’re going to add the egg, adjust the proving time to give it a little longer, but not too long as it’ll be over proved.
When I started a cinnamon knot dough batch recently, I realised 20 minutes into the prove when James came home from the shops that I meant to wait to add an egg…doh! 🤦🏼♀️
I went straight into the airing cupboard and grabbed the bowl, the dough had already started to rise…I quickly threw it back into the stand mixer and added the egg…as I mentioned - slimy disaster…I got my hands straight in to work the egg into the dough. I turned it out onto the side, added a little flour bit by bit until I had a workable texture and kneaded for a few minutes until smooth. I then left it for 50 mins (it was originally supposed to be an hour). It had doubled in size and I carried on with the recipe as if nothing had happened…🙄
This is why you should always read your recipe in advance and get all your ingredients out before you start…all essential baking tips which are included in my Baking Essentials Handbook that I’ve been writing and is coming soon - FOR FREE! 🥰
19/02/2022
➡️ Learn this super easy technique to make cinnamon knots!
There are a few different ways to make cinnamon knots, you can twist and tie a knot in the dough, you can single or double knot, or you can do a simple plait like this and make them look super fancy! 🥰
Take a look through the images to see the stages of this technique, easy yet really effective!
A pizza cutter is great for this, if you don’t have one you can use a dough cutter or just a sharp knife.
Once baked you can also pop some in the freezer and then thaw to enjoy another time (if there are any left). I’d recommend warming them back up…😍
I used a recipe for the cinnamon knots, but changed the technique for shaping to this one!
Another scratch off for this bake too - as part of the 🎉
Save this post for later and please do tag me if you give them a go! 🙌
05/02/2022
Hot chocolate bombs! 🔥🍫💣
It’s been a chilly little weekend here and I’ve been meaning to make some of these little spheres of heaven for a little while…😍
Cocoa powder and mini marshmallows (and perhaps a couple extra chocolate chips…😉) encased in a milk chocolate ball with dark chocolate drizzle. I added a few little 💕 because it’s Valentine’s Day soon and I made them for my favourite 😘
The possibilities are endless with these…have you made any? Happy to take suggestions of variations to make next…
01/02/2022
🍌Need ripe bananas quickly to make some fabulous banana bread?! ⬇️
The Hack - Bake unripened bananas in the oven for 30 mins on a low heat (140-150 degrees Celsius) until they are black and soft. Make sure you leave them to cool and they’ll be perfectly sweet and ready for a banana bread recipe! 🙌
Baking Tip - pop a sheet of baking paper underneath your bananas whilst they bake just incase one splits as the sugar can stick to the tray and burn 🙄
Have you pre-baked your unripened bananas before? Easy right?!
Feel free to share! 😉
Crumbs by Collette
Sharing the love of baking is what underpins this project. The aim is to get more people baking, something that I find positively influences my mental health and can be even more fun with friends and family - creating memories together!
There are so many ways to get into baking and infinite recipes and ideas to pursue. To achieve the aim of getting more people baking I wanted to create something truly innovative, new and show-stopping, but accessible to everyone. Biscuit dough is relatively inexpensive and easy to make and with the right tools (which is where I come in) you can create these amazing 3D biscuit models at home!
When I say ‘I’ - this is a project of creative baker meets engineer. My boyfriend James is the computer genius behind my design drawings and plans! He is already bought into the aim of baking together...
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Opening Hours
| Monday | 09:00 - 21:00 |
| Tuesday | 18:00 - 21:00 |
| Wednesday | 18:00 - 21:00 |
| Thursday | 18:00 - 21:00 |
| Friday | 18:00 - 21:00 |
| Saturday | 10:00 - 16:00 |