There’s nothing like the smell of freshly baked mince pies wafting through the air to remind you the big day is almost here. And, at one Stockport cafe, bakers have been working day and night for the last week to make sure customers have their supply of festive treats in time for Christmas.
You’ll often find queues snaking out of the door at All Things Nice, a cafe, bakery and wine bar on Marple high street, as locals and visitors try to get their hands on their hugely popular freshly baked bread and pastries. Pain au chocolat and sourdough are particular favourites.
Today, on an unseasonably warm winter morning, the shop is buzzing with people picking up panettone, families grabbing brunch and the All Things Nice team grafting away in the background as they gear up for one of the busiest weeks of the year.
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This week, as well as their usual batch of cookies, cronuts and croissants, thousands of mince pies will make their way along the bakery’s production line - each little pastry cup jam-packed full of the very best mince meat. The six-strong bakery team, which includes co-owner Dean Blackwell, is powering through their to-do list of Christmas orders, breads for the cafe and intricate pastries which line the shop window.
Bakers Janine and Meg, wearing some very festive antler headbands, are both on early shifts, which start between two and five in the morning. As Meg cuts out small, decorative gingerbread men, Janine slices into a mammoth caramel crunch fudge brownie, a heavy duty bake which isn't strictly a Christmas special, but customers would be up in arms if it was taken off the menu.
Dean, who baked at the shop for eight years before buying it with Nick Garner and Tom Norris in lockdown, tells me that they'll be using all possible hours this week to fulfil their orders and keep the cafe stocked. “You’ll find people baking 24 hours around the clock - not one member of staff I might add - but 12 to 14 hour shifts all through the night,” he tells me.
“There will always be three bakers in at any one time. We usually have more of us in but we need to have plenty of breaks because it is going to be such a busy week.” Dean and Nick took over the cafe in 2020, and whilst they describe it as a “nerve-racking” thing to do during a period of uncertainty, the hard work has paid off - the queues outside the shop every Saturday and Sunday morning are testament to that.
“It’s what myself and Nick love to do, and with his front-of-house skills, and my back-of-house skills, it’s worked well, and ever since we have it’s just got busier and busier. But more so than ever, we couldn’t do all this without our incredible staff.”
The bakers usually work in staggered shifts, from 10pm through to 6am, but the Christmas rush adds another level of pressure as Dean explains. “On top of keeping the shelves stocked and cabinets full, we also have to look at customer’s Christmas orders" he says.
“The last day for orders was Saturday so we’ve got to manage that alongside the regular running of the bakery and shop. People will buy delicacies like the cruffin this week, but another big one at Christmas is our pork pies - they’re a big seller around this time of year - and Janine’s amazing panettone creation.”
“People are often queuing for the cruffins'', adds Janine. “We tend to do one favour a week and once it’s gone, we don’t repeat it or put it on anymore, so they're in high demand. This week it’s hazelnut cream and white chocolate truffle, and we’ve tried to replicate raffaello flavours.”
Christmas specials being worked on behind the counter include gingerbread, panettone, bûche de Noël - the chocolate log to you and me - plus pork pies with cranberry and special sausage rolls. They usually sell out of their popular Christmas pie box, but this year, having only recently opened a second branch down the road in Macclesfield, they’ve had to cut their cloth as they work to keep both shops fully stocked.
Thankfully though, one of their bakers, who is currently taking a much-needed break, has cooked up a Christmas focaccia this year with hazelnut, sage butter and pancetta - and it’s already a best-seller. It's a slick operation being run here and one that takes a lot of hours and commitment.
“I’ll be in every day this week, easily over 100 hours,” explains Dean. “I’ve been in every day since last Monday, so the 12th, and probably won’t be off until Christmas Day.
"Christmas Eve will be the busiest day of the year for us, followed by New Year's Eve, and to top it off there’s just been the market here in Marple this weekend and the treacle market at Macclesfield, so everything's fallen really close together, but at the end of the day we enjoy what we do, there’s a real passion behind it.
“We all do the job we do because we love baking and creating things. We don’t order anything in, so everything you see here we make on site, and we pride ourselves on that. Don’t get me wrong, no one enjoys doing 14 hour shifts, but we all enjoy what we do, and that’s why we do it.”
During Christmas lockdowns the bakery was still in full operation, but focused on delivering orders, and on Christmas Eve the shop was full of hundreds of parcels and hampers. This year, they won’t have the space to take over the cafe in the week, as it will remain open up until 2pm on Christmas Eve, but Toni and the team who look after orders have it all in hand.
“Lockdown Christmas from the baking side really wasn’t that bad, because everyone was at home, people were still buying bread and pork pies,” she explains. “We filled the shop full of orders and there were six people weighing out cheese for eight hours the day before.
“This year, we have orders every day now running up to New Year's Eve, so we’ve got about 60 orders between the 23rd and Christmas Eve and then across the whole festive period there’s about 100 orders going out with a range of things - some of them are massive orders with huge amounts of cheese, bread and pastries, like the tear and share croissant that we have this year - which people can bake at home as it’s already been proved for them.”
The bakery team will work through this week before having a few well-deserved days off. They will then ramp things back up for New Year's Eve. It’s a lot of work, but as I leave, co-owner Nick, who’s been busy front-of-house serving customers, running coffees and taking bookings, tells me they’ve been building up to the big day since August. “Customers ask us if we’re feeling festive, and I just smile because we’ve been planning for this since summer”, he grins before heading back into the cafe to confront the Christmas rush.
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