Written by Barbara Walshe

‘She’s responsible for the retro sweet revival,
boosting British pride, and has people popping into
John Lewis for a different reason these days.
Life may be sugar coated for Kitty Hope of
Hope and Greenwood right now,
but it wasn’t always the case…

Today, she’s a Fizzy Fang girl. Tomorrow, it could be
Cherry Lips and Custard Creams. Or Cola Bottles and
Toffee Bonbons. These are the kinds of decisions
you make when you’re one half of Britain’s biggest
independent sweet shop.

“We call it quality control,” laughs Kitty Hope,
better known as Miss Hope of Hope and Greenwood
(her husband being Mr Greenwood).
“Sometimes it’s chocolate, other times it’s jellies…
I have to make sure they’re all okay!”

With all that sucking, chewing and laughing at
Sugar HQ, the company’s head office in London’s
Battersea, it’s a wonder anything gets done.
Yet, in truth, that’s what’s behind much of their
success today. Because it’s Hope and Greenwood’s
ability to bring us back to our youth – celebrating
the childish fun of chewing a toffee one moment
and gobbling a jelly the next – that makes them so
appealing.

And they’ve attracted some of the unlikeliest fans
as a result. Three months after launching their
first sweet shop in 2004, Terence Conran’s people
were on the phone talking about a collaboration.
“They love sweets! We’re often at their Marylebone
High Street store, setting up a sweet shop for
them there. We also do customer evenings
and support them in any way we can.”

Johnnie Boden, founder of UK clothing company
Boden, is another sweet tooth. Now writing a monthly
blog with recipes for their website, Miss Hope
reveals: “Rhubarb and Custard are his favourites.”

It’s little wonder then that, with fans like this,
the great and good have since come knocking.
Today, Hope and Greenwood has two stand-alone shops
in Dulwich and Covent Garden, but also a range of
concessions in top stores like Harrods, Selfridges,
Fortnum & Mason and John Lewis. 

That’s just for starters. Ocado launched a Hope and
Greenwood online shop recently, and their first global
store opened in Japan in November after they were
actively pursued by the Japanese to do so.

But perhaps most exciting of all has been the launch
of their new home ware range in February exclusively
at John Lewis. With a style described as ‘Cath Kidson
with a sense of humour’, it might not have been a move
people anticipated, but in other ways it makes
complete sense.

Because Hope and Greenwood have never been just a
shop selling retro sweets – they’ve also designed their
own since the beginning. “We don’t like resting on our
rhubarb and custard laurels,” says Miss Hope,
“I’d rather combine the old with the new. So, whereas
our feet are firmly in yesterday, we do have that nod
to tomorrow with new sweets, and I love that we’re
carrying on the sweet shop to the next generation.”

It’s Kitty Hope that’s the creative genius
behind much of this. An illustrator by profession
(whose accolades include designing the Gruffalo),
she worked in the publishing industry and as a product
designer before discovering her true vocation.

This experience proved seminal in making Hope and
Greenwood what it is today. As an illustrator,
for example, she loved the design element but hated
the isolation. Now, she surrounds herself with 18
staff at Sugar HQ and countless freelancers.

Meanwhile, she keeps close ties with the publishing
industry, bringing out her third book this summer,
Miss Hope’s Teatime Treats, after her first two were
stellar successes - Life is Sweet and Miss Hope’s
Chocolate Box.

But her time in product design, working for a large
lifestyle company undoubtedly had the biggest impact.
“It taught me exactly what I didn’t want
in my workplace. They ruled through fear and bullying
and I won’t have that here. Also, the products were
all about bulk. I wanted to get back to doing
something I was really proud of.”

Leaving their well paid jobs, she and her husband
knew immediately that Hope and Greenwood would
be a success. “The evening after opening the shop,
we went home, opened a bottle of wine and I said
‘We’ve unleashed a beast’.”

Partly, it was down to identifying a gap in the market.
But, a gifted trend forecaster, Miss Hope’s gut
instinct would also prove essential. “The day we
opened our shop, we actually had a row about whether
to put up Union Jack bunting in case we got our windows broken.
It was a sensitive thing back then. And I said
‘I don’t give a toss what the rest of the country thinks,
I’m British and I’m proud of it!’ I hope we
spurred on that trend.”

But their success is also down to more than that.
While their 21-year-old son, two stepchildren and
four grandchildren are often the inspiration
behind their sweets, they’re also hugely influenced
by their customers.  It was them, for example, who
also came up with the idea for using old style
British Ration Books as gift vouchers, and they often
runs competitions for customers to name their new sweets.

But things can also turn bittersweet at Sugar HQ.
Working with her husband of ten years all day,
every day, can lead to bickering – even if theirs
is a partnership that absolutely works. “It can be hard,”
she admits. “We describe ourselves as ‘the accelerator
and the brake’. I’ll be pushing and innovating and
he’ll be pulling back and refocusing us on what’s working best.”

Meanwhile, work/life balance is ‘non-existent’,
admitting: “We wake up going ‘Did you send…’ and
the last thing at night, it’s ‘Have you done…’”
It’s why they recently hired managing director
Richard Ruddy, or ‘the headmaster’ as he’s known within
the company, freeing them up from the spreadsheets
and nitty gritty, to think up even bigger and better
things for the future.

With her new book out in June and their homeware
range launching nationwide in June, what could possibly
be next? Only Miss Hope knows, and she’s not telling –
which why she’s always ten steps ahead of the rest of
the industry. “If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you,”
she deadpans. Then there’s a peel of laughter and she’s
off in search of more sugar.

Visit Hope and Greenwood for Easter eggs with a twist this month.’

As luck would have it you probably have a food mixer so death by marchpane suffocation
proves no threat.

Makes 25-30 colourful Easter sandwiches.
It takes 45 minutes to make.

Ingredients
400g Ground almonds
50g Icing Sugar
450g Granulated Sugar
½ tsp Cream of tartar
½ tsp Almond extract
Pink food colouring
Green food colouring
50g Dark chocolate

To decorate
30 Almond slivers.

You will need
A Sugar thermometer
Rolling Pin

1. Pop the ground almonds and icing sugar into a food mixer and give them a stir.

2. Place the granulated sugar and 1/4 pint of water into a heavy bottomed pan
and place on a low heat. Stir continuously with a wooden spoon until the sugar has dissolved.
This may take 5-10 minutes so please be patient.

3. Bring the mixture to a boil and add the cream of tartar. Bubble gently for around 10 -15 minutes
until the syrup is reached 115ºC on your thermometer.

4. Turn the food mixer on and gently add the syrup to the ground almonds in a steady shining thread.
Add the almond extract and stir well. Leave to cool for 10 minutes and then remove the paste from
your food mixer until it is cool enough to handle.

5. Divide the mixture in 3 equal lumps;

a. To lump 1 add a few drops of green food colouring and then knead the paste until it is a pale
green of a leprechaun’s waistcoat.
b. To lump 2 add pink colouring and knead well until it is the colour of a princess’s petticoat
c. For lump 3 - Place the 50g of dark chocolate in a heat proof bowl and set over a pan of hot
water, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Warm gently to melt the chocolate.
Add the melted chocolate to the paste and knead until it is the brown of a squirrels hankie.

6. Roll the lumps out between 2 pieces of cling film until they are roughly rectangular and
approximately the same size.

7. Then layer one rectangle of paste on top of another to make a sandwich. I favour a green layer,
then brown, then pink, but the choice is yours. Run the rolling pin lightly over the marzipan sandwich
to squidge the pastes together.

8. Cut the marzipan into small even squares and decorate with a sliver of almond.

Sugar Gossip
Queen Elizabeth snacked on sugary stuff so much that her teeth were black. The crazy ladies in her court
followed suit blackening their teeth and painting their faces white to ape their beloved queen.

In Britain today ladies have bouffant perms, pearls and corgi accessories.

Feel free to add your own favourite topping, try our Hen’s Eggs or Itsy Bitsy Eggs.

Makes 49 pieces
Takes around 15 minutes, plus chilling – much less time than you spend on the phone to the Ikea helpline.

60g (21/2oz) butter, chopped, plus extra to grease
125g (41/2oz) milk chocolate, chopped
125g (41/2oz) dark chocolate, chopped
200g sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated milk)
1tsp vanilla extract
Hen’s Eggs or Itsy Bitsy Eggs.

1 Generously butter a 17cm (63/4in) square tin and line with baking parchment.
2 Pop 5cm (21/2in) water in a pan and bring to the boil. Pop a heatproof bowl on top. Add the two types of chocolate, the remaining butter, condensed milk and vanilla extract.
3 Reduce the heat to the lowest setting and allow the chocolate and butter to melt.
4 Take off the heat and have fun stirring all the ingredients together. Please be careful the bowl is hot.
5 Pour into the prepared tin and scatter over the Candy Eggs, pushing them into the fudge so that they stick. Cool, then chill overnight.
6. Remove from the fridge and cut into squares and serve.

Other Ingredients your little chef’s may wish to try;
Play Doh, hair bobbles, cat food, Nan’s best hat, Snuffles the rabbit, My little Pony and bogies.

‘Confectioners Miss Hope and Mr Greenwood have a flair for sourcing wierd and wonderful antiques, but their real skill is knowing how to showcase it all in their London home.’

Do come in and take a LOOK!

Our shop-within-a-shop tells you all about our Heritage, the Best of Blighty, Miss Hope’s encounters…Miss Hope’s Recipes…Traditional Sweets, Perfect Pressies, Fudge and Truffles and more.

Now you can pop some Hope and Greenwood sweets in amongst your toilet roll and tapioca. Ray will deliver your sweets in the Onion Van. Ray fantasises about a marshmallow van with a furry dash and a stiletto accommodating clutch.

This splendid Hope and Greenwood Sweet Shop has been a secret project of some duration, motoring North in the Morris, without outriders and at my own expense. The M1 stretches ahead, my Versace flapping in the wind, turning left at The Galleria, home of the tracksuit bottom and food in buckets.

If you wish to access Ocado/Cucumber Towers you must do battle with the security barrier activated by swiping a security keycard or cheese sandwich.  It is ruled by Mr Jason Gissing, Cucumber God, who patiently keeps a 24 personal webcam watch in the hope I will scratch my Mulberry.

There is a whisper that Mr Gissing has also webcam access to the lounges of several million satisfied housewives. That would account for the yearly sales of 1.7 million cucumbers.

Find us on your tinternet and pop in and see us here…

The programme will see a rollout of a minimum of 25 Hope and Greenwood stores within the first 3 years.

It appears that the Japanese market can’t get enough of this iconic British brand. They love the traditional styling and clever packaging. Hope and Greenwood’s British quirkiness suits the Japanese taste and is aesthetically spot-on for a nation renowned for its attention to detail. Designed in-house by Miss Hope, Hope and Greenwood’s jolly packaging is infused with humour and playfulness and the recipes for their confections come direct from the combined imagination of Miss Hope and Mr Greenwood.

This is a big thumbs-up for UK export.
British to the core, Hope and Greenwood source its confections and packaging from Britain.

Here are some other festive tasks for your kind attention;

1. Have a sherry.
2. Hang each new Christmas card on cheery, red ribbon over crackling log fire.
3. Roast some chestnuts.
4. Buy some chestnuts.
5. Spray some acorns silver.
6. Wash glitter pen out of your hair.
7. Buy your mother a really expensive scarf, which she will re-gift to you next Christmas, win, win.
8. Use expensive scarf to put out Christmas card fire.

Takes about 20 minutes to make.
Makes about 12-16 meeces

1 Egg White (or powdered egg white if you prefer)                                                                                                                       450g (1lb) Icing Sugar
2-3 tiny drops of Pink Food Colouring
5-6 drops of Strawberry flavouring
Edible Silver balls
String cut into 10cm (4 inch) lengths

Please beat the egg white until frothy but not stiff. Have a sherry.

Drop in the flavouring and pink colour and stir. Go easy.

Kindly sieve the icing, adding enough to produce a fairly stiff fondant mixture.

It may be more or less than 450g, depending on the size of the egg white.

Lightly dust your work surface with icing sugar. Knead the mixture into a firm paste and divide into 12 - 16 pieces. Sherry glass is looking a bit empty.

Roll the pieces into oval shapes. Press a piece of string into the ball, pressing the fondant around the ‘tail’ to secure it.

Make one end pointed to form a nose, pinch up two small pieces to produce cute ears. Practice makes perfect.

Feel free to use silver balls for eyes or go off-piste and paint them with black food colour. You may also wish to add a moustache, I know I do. Further titillation may stretch to dipping in them in chocolate and giving them a jaunty sugar flower ‘hat’ depending on how many sherries you have had.

Place the mice onto parchment or silicon paper, place in a warm place to dry for 24 hours. Store in an airtight container.

Do not feed sugar mice cheese, sugar mice do not eat cheese.

Mr Greenwood’s Gloucester Old Spot

This week we have teamed up with our chums at Fru.

We have twenty Jamboree Hampers filled with Hope and Greenwood treats to be won, worth £25 each.

Share them out or throw caution to the wind and satisfy your own sweet tooth…

Just click here to enter
http://www.frupuds.com/

 H&G have teamed up with Anorak to create an enormous Bunny Trunk of Easter sweets worth £150.00!
To enter the competition just hop along to;
http://www.anorakonline.co.uk/