The Bettys Blog

At the start of 2020, our Cone Exchange was looking forward to its busiest and best year yet. The project had already come far since 2003, when it began as a way to find inventive new uses for leftover materials – and not just cardboard cones – from Bettys Craft Bakery and the Taylors Tea & Coffee Factory.

Colouring-in is a lovely, mindful way to relax not to mention a brilliant way to get creative. These colour-in Easter cards featuring five different egg designs – based on real Bettys eggs no less. They're perfect for creating homemade cards to show someone special that you’re thinking of them.

Hot cross buns are as much a part of Easter as chocolate eggs and simnel cake. They mark the end of lent and are traditionally eaten on Good Friday, though we’ve come to love them so much that they now tend to be eaten throughout March and April. If you haven’t been lucky enough to buy one of our giant Hot Cross Buns this year, this recipe will make sure you don’t miss out.

Bettys’ Head of Beautiful, Robyn Cox, is the creative mind behind our glorious window displays, including our famous Christmas creations. Here he offers his tips for creating a little Bettys-style festive magic at home

We knew it would be a really busy Christmas this year, so we prepared thoroughly by making twice as many treats and ensuring we had plenty more delivery slots available. Despite this, we've now sold out of everything that could be delivered before 25th December.

At Bettys we always make sure to keep our silver teapots sparkling and our cake trollies stocked with everyone’s favourites, but the finishing touch for any of our six Café Tea Rooms is a window display good enough to devour. Although they’re best peered at in person – ideally shortly before heading into the café for a treat – we also love sharing our most creative and colourful displays online. Wherever you are, we hope they brighten up your day.

This Christmas at Bettys, we’re captivated by the spirit of the 1920s. A decade of both breathless modernity and timeless beauty, its iconic styles still delight a century later. It was also an exciting time for our youthful business, as we opened elegant new cafés across Yorkshire and started sending out treats by mail order.

As we at Bettys well know, Yorkshire’s culinary delights are many, from treacle-sticky parkin and dainty curd tarts to the joy of a perfectly risen Yorkshire pudding. But one local invention still prompts double takes beyond the county’s borders – the idea that however fine your slice of fruit cake, it can always be improved by the addition of cheese.

At Bettys, we know how much better everything is when you come together over a freshly brewed cup. And one reason why is that we’re lucky to have Taylors as our sister company, supplying the teas and coffees in our cafés, shops and online. But it wasn’t always that way for these one-time rivals.

Take the fear out of pastry with our recipe for this lovely tart which is perfect for family dinners and picnics. What's more, you can adapt the recipe to use up left-overs in the fridge.

Annie Gray, author of ‘From the Alps to the Dales’ shares her reflections on how our specialities and service have provided nourishment and joy in difficult times across our 100-year history.

You’ll often find us celebrating Bettys’ founder Frederick Belmont for his fine confectionery skills, his vision in opening our first café in Harrogate back in 1919 and for a dedication to doing things right that still inspires us today. What’s less usual is for us to praise the young Swiss orphan who chose to settle in Yorkshire for being the owner of a mean pair of biceps.

The Swiss Roll is in some ways the perfect Bettys dessert. For one, it references the home of our founder, Frederick Belmont, who was born near Bern (though it's thought the recipe actually originated in Austria). But more importantly, it is a simple treat that is comforting in its familiarity.

It began with just one tree. We planted it outside Bettys Harrogate in 1990 - and since then, we've planted 5 million around the world (and there's plenty more to come). If you're a Bettys and Taylors customer, thank you! Our Trees for Life project blossomed because of you.

Did you know that our giant handmade Imperial Easter Eggs continue a tradition stretching back over a century to the birth of Bettys? Our founder, Frederick Belmont, created lavish Easter eggs which were ornately decorated with hand-piped icing. Though we didn't create one in 2020, we thought you might enjoy looking back at four designs from recent years.

If you're finding that you have a little more time on your hands than usual and you fancy getting crafty this Easter, we're here to help. Robyn Cox is Bettys’ ‘Head of Beautiful’ and creates our lovely window displays. Now he’s turned his attention to beautifying your home this Easter with these three styling suggestions.

Swiss Rösti is one of our most famous and popular dishes. To understand why it's on our menu you have to go back to 1885 and a little town called Lindenbach near Bern, Switzerland. That's where our founder, Frederick Belmont, was born. He later travelled to England and in 1919 opened the first Bettys. He filled it with continental specialities – a tradition we continue to this day.