In The Making

A Winning Main picture: Nadiya Hussain’s huge popularity goes way beyond her cooking skills. (Photo: Chris Terry) Below: Of course the first batch of designs just had to include a cake!

RecipeTake a generous handful of vibrant colours, stir in Nadiya Hussain brightened up our lives the moment some eye-catching patterns, add some choice she first appeared on - and went on to win - Great British Bake Off in 2015 and has continued to spread words, season with exquisite foiling and garnish with joy ever since. Through sharing her skills and her an uplifting message from the chef, and there you personality on her TV programmes, through her have it, a Nadiya Hussain greeting card collection. cookery books and newspaper columns, Nadiya has

PG ventured into the Woodmansterne ‘kitchen’ to become one of the most influential and inspirational learn about the vital ingredients in this latest launch. women in popular culture, something that has not been missed by the Woodmansterne creative team. “Every 3-6 months we have a group brainstorming, where everyone in the studio contributes images of what has caught their eye, be it through social media, on TV, in retail or elsewhere,” explained Lee Keeper, creative director of Woodmansterne Publications. “During one of these sessions at the start of lockdown, we were flicking through the sheets of submissions and Nadiya’s smiling face popped up within a display of Bliss ceramics in John Lewis, and something clicked.” No time was wasted in getting in contact with Ian Downes of Start Licensing, who represents Nadiya on the licensing front. “We knew Ian already as we had worked with him on our Ashmolean Museum range. Before we knew it, we were on a Zoom call and goodness me Nadiya was there too. Her involvement in and enthusiasm for what we wanted to create as well as her love of greeting cards generally really was the icing on the cake, pardon the pun!” recalls Lee. Having been an ardent Bake Off fan since Nadiya first rose to fame, Woodmansterne senior designer Paula Reece jumped at the opportunity to translate the essence of this amazing woman into greeting cards. “I wanted the designs to reflect Nadiya’s vibrant self with bright colours and patterns that were beautiful and quirky; pretty but not too girlie,” said Paula. “The fact that I shared Nadiya’s love of Marmite crisps and salad cream I hoped would mean I was on the right wavelength with the design approach. Thankfully I was!”

Paula was delighted by the feedback from Nadiya to the initial designs. “She loved the colours I had selected - saying they exactly matched the colours she had used in her garden,” revealed Paula.

Coming as something of an unexpected bonus is that not only does Nadiya feels very positively about greeting cards (including upcycling used cards by making them into tags), but is also a dab hand at coming up with her own phrases that lend themselves perfectly to greeting cards.

“I'm a big fan of greeting cards and have always loved sending cards to friends and family. I think they are a great way of staying in touch and showing people that you care about them,” says Nadiya

The Woody chefs

PG turned up the heat on Woodmansterne’s Lee Keeper and Paula Reece to find out if their greeting card creative skills extend to the kitchen… l Lee Keeper: “While no chef, I certainly do a fair amount of cooking in the Keeper household. In addition to rustling up delicious meals from Gousto boxes, I always cook the Sunday lunch - my stuffing is a big hit!”

Fave meal: “Anything from Babur, a fabulous Indian restaurant close to where we live in South London.”

Fave cake: “I love a chocolate Guinness cake.” l Paula Reece: “I am baker rather than a chef. I love making cakes and desserts, some of which I take into the office. Probably my speciality would be chocolate orange brownies, just delicious!”

Above: Woodmansterne creative director Lee Keeper, getting creative in the kitchen, making sesame hoisin meat-free meatballs for the family dinner. Right: An early Bake Off fan, Woodmansterne’s Paula Reece (right) dressed up as Sue Perkins, one of the programmes presenters on the original BBC series.

Below: Woodmansterne’s inaugural Nadiya greeting card collection exudes her vibrancy.

explaining why she was delighted when the opportunity came up to develop her “own cards” with Woody. “I have really enjoyed working with Woodmansterne. It's been a really collaborative process and meant that I have created my own messages and slogans as well as helping develop the designs for the cards too. I'm so looking forward to sending my OWN cards to my friends and family soon!” added Nadiya.

As Paula points out: “There are similarities between baking a cake and creating a greeting card - both are for someone else and both need to be as yummy as possible. I just feel so honoured that I have been able to work with Nadiya to create these ‘yummy’ cards.”

Other flavoursome ingredients

Woodmansterne’s greeting card range joins a steadily growing licensing programme for Nadiya-related merchandise, which is handled by Start Licensing, headed up by the company’s founder Ian Downes. Here, Ian shares some of the recent developments in Nadiya’s licensing activities and gives a taste of what’s to come… “Our long-term licensee BlissHome continue to enjoy success with its range of kitchenware which includes ceramics and kitchen textiles featuring patterns designed by Nadiya. A particular highlight for BlissHome is the retail coverage the range has achieved in John Lewis with dedicated space and displays. In addition, Wilton Bradley has developed three baking kits aimed at children which include recipes and baking tools. These are linked to Nadiya’s Bake Me a Story books. Looking to plans for 2022, we are delighted that early in the year leading cookware brand Prestige will be launching a range of cookware called Nadiya Loves. Nadiya has been integrally involved in the development of the range and Prestige will be supporting the launch with a range of PR and social media activations that it has developed alongside Nadiya. Meanwhile, Nadiya has been working with retailer Next in a collaborative way, initially to select and recommend products from Next’s footwear collections. This partnership has been extended into other apparel categories and will include some bespoke product development in the future.” On the general profile front, in addition to Fast Flavours, the recent popular BBC series (which promoted the cookbook of the same title) Nadiya has also been involved in the BBC Good Food Show and has made frequent appearances on a range of TV shows to talk about her life and work. A measure of her popularity can be gauged by her appearances as a ‘cover star’ on a broad spectrum of magazines, which include titles as diverse as Psychologies and My Weekly.