Annabel Lui is recalibrating London’s baking scene with Cutter & Squidge, the cult dessert company she founded with her sister Emily. Here, she gives a taste of a typical day constantly innovating in the kitchen – and how a night-time sleep ritual is key to success.
I’m up at 5.10am most mornings. I’ll jump in the shower, get dressed, then apply some Estée Lauder Daywear moisturiser. Makeup can wait until I get to the bakery. I have a quick ginger tea before I set off. I never leave home without putting on the female Buddha necklace passed down by my grandmother, and a jade bracelet with the word “Hope” inscribed on it, given to me by my sister Emily when we launched Cutter & Squidge in 2014.
Arriving at our Soho cafe-bakery at 6am, I’ll grab a bowl of “Gramuesli” (our handmade granola and muesli hybrid), then change into chef whites and a hairnet. My team of seven are already hard at work. We gather around to run through the day’s to-do list, discuss any challenges and get a trading update, then I’ll bring them up to speed on new product ideas.
I’ll stay in the kitchen all morning, tasting. Our ethos is based on delivering natural food and producing true colours and flavours – we never use synthetics. We buy British and organic produce, and our food is vegetarian and alcohol-free. It’s not a fast approach: it took five months of experimenting with beetroot juice to produce red velvet cupcakes that came out of the oven scarlet rather than brown. I love that our food looks vibrant and beautiful on a table, but tastes even better.
I’ll have lunch at my desk while replying to emails. The team cooks for each other, so I always eat something hot. Then I’ll see how we’re looking after our customers – friendliness is so important. Emily and I grew up in my parent’s restaurant and my family are my inspiration. We were raised on homegrown veggies, being educated about fresh food. My parent’s influence runs through our business – from the counters Dad built when I couldn’t afford the shop-build, to the health methodology – our mousse-like butter cream is much lighter in fat, for example.
Today I’m going to serve our new afternoon tea for the team so they know how it needs to be presented – and how it tastes. I’ll be thinking about visual merchandising at the same time, because I’m planning Christmas hampers and menus at the moment. I will often do an hour of creative product shots with our marketing person, before moving on to development in the bakery. Our signature “biskie”, a biscuit/cake cross, is always evolving – I’ve got a thing for blood orange and berry tastes for summer.
Once a week, I do a shift until 9.30pm, but otherwise I’ll prepare dinner around 8pm for me and my sister – we love Chinese greens such as choy sum. As well as being my flatmate and business partner, Emily is a lawyer, so she plugs into Cutter & Squidge after work to reply to commercial opportunities, discuss strategy and act as a fantastic support. I begin my sleep-better ritual by winding down with a shower to process my thoughts and clean my face, then I apply Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair, which feels instantly luxurious on my skin. My laptop is off by 10pm. After that I use a journal to offload product ideas and business prep for the next day. I’ll fall asleep swiftly by 11pm. I’m one of those lucky people who can sleep standing up if I have to.
