Sophie’s Hot Squash was always going to be a tough soup to beat, and so when Aprille expressed doubt as to whether hers contained The Magic, you could smell fear wafting above the aroma of red peppers and sweet potatoes.

“I wish I’d have put another red pepper in it,” Aprille said.

Sophie was visibility delighted. The first contender to her domestic throne (is that just a chair?) had turned out to be just a pretender.

“But at least I didn’t just copy a recipe,” Aprille added. A blatant jibe about Sophie’s use of a Jamie original. We told you this was going to get competitive.

The studio fell silent. Sophie had been shot down at Aprille’s OK Soup But Could Do With A Bit More Seasoning Corral.

You could cut the tension with the bread knife that James was holding.

“Good consistency,” I said, diffusing the situation by being vague. I’ve no idea what is or isn’t a good consistency when it comes to soup.

And then we all agreed that we actually rather liked Aprille’s soup. It was honest, homemade food. Good without being great. And we like her gung-ho, ‘anything in the cupboard’ approach to cooking. So we called it Jazz Soup. And it was good.

So a victory, albeit a small one, for Aprille.

Blog Post written by Chris Waters

Winter is coming. The goose is getting fat. And us creative types are getting a bit sniffly.

So some bright bod in the office suggested starting Soup Club.

Soup Club does exactly what it says on the tin. Except there are no tins allowed. It’s about vegetables, blenders and a flare for the tasty. And more than just a pinch of competitive salt. This, good friends, is culinary warfare.

Sophie was first up to the hob. Which was always going to be a bit like when U2 and Paul McCartney opened Live 8 – a tough act to follow. Soph is, after all, Queen of Birthday Cakes.

We shall name Soph’s soup Hot Squash. Not just because of its butternut squash, harlequin squash and chilli content, but because Soph regularly shuns tea and coffee for a hot mug of orange squash.

Anyway. Hot Squash was, as predicted, a broth of brilliance. A saucepan of sumptiousness. A <insert noun> of <insert alliterative noun>.

***STOP PRESS*** Sophie has just announced it was a Jamie Oliver recipe. Is that cheating?

Next Tuesday sees Aprille cook up a storm a soup bowl. We await with baited (and somewhat squashy) breath.

Blog Post written by Chris Waters

Steve wanted to see his Swap Shop window graphics in all their glory, so visited the UCS Waterfront Building in Ipswich at the weekend. He came back with these snaps.

We think they look great. You?

Blog Post written by Chris Waters

We’ve been working with University Campus Suffolk recently on their forthcoming Swap Shop that takes place on Sunday 16 August.

The UCS marketing team love Steve’s fun, homespun identity for Swap Shop, so we suggested putting it on display for all to see in the windows of the stunning Waterfront Building. They were keen on the idea, so we created the graphics and booked signage specialists to print and apply vinyl stickers (which can be removed – stain free – after the event) to the large perimeter windows.

We met the signage team early this morning, armed with this quick print out of our designs, just to make sure they were clear about what was going where. They were, so we popped upstairs for a quick morning cuppa.

Fifteen minutes later, we came back down to see how things were progressing. As you can see from these rough snaps, it’s going to look fabulous. So we left the signage team to it and headed off for Southwold.

(In the above photo, note the client carefully checking our work and a possible breach of health and safety.)

We’ll post photos of the finished item once we have them.

Blog Post written by Chris Waters