A Sprinkle of Mystery and a Slice of Cake! A Q&A with Harry Woodgate, Creator of Cinnamon Crumb

Grab yourself a slice of cake and get ready for a deliciously fun peek behind the pages of Cinnamon Crumb, Baking Detective: The Great Cake Caper!

We were absolutely delighted to catch up with author and illustrator Harry Woodgate to chat all things cakes, clues and cosy mysteries! From the inspiration behind the wonderfully sweet town of Marzipan to creating lovable characters, clever twists and some truly brilliant baking puns, Harry gives us a little taste of the magic behind this scrumptious new adventure.

So pop the kettle on, find yourself a tasty treat and enjoy our lovely Q&A with Harry Woodgate!

You can also purchase the book and activity pack here. This set comes with a lovely bookplate signed by Harry Woodgate and a bookmark. 

Where did you get the idea for Cinnamon Crumb and the town of Marzipan?

I’ve loved baking ever since I was a child, and one of my favourite genres as a reader is cosy crime, so combining the two sounded like a perfect recipe. I began writing what would eventually become The Great Cake Caper in the summer of 2021, not long after the Covid lockdowns and at a time when I was dealing with a lot of difficult things in my own life, so I really wanted to write a story that was full of joy, silliness, and of course lots of delicious cakes and pastries! 

With the town of Marzipan, my goal was to try and create a world that felt just as immersive and richly imagined as the ones I most loved from my favourite childhood books. However, it’s also partly inspired by various real-life locations and historic cities, such as Prague, Paris, Bruges and many more. One of the things I love about visiting new places is that everywhere has its own food culture, but regardless of your location, food tends to be something that brings people together, so I wanted to reflect this in Cinnamon’s world, too. I hope that when readers step into the town of Marzipan, it feels cosy and welcoming – like the first sip of hot chocolate on a chilly day.

 If you could visit one place in Marzipan in real life, where would you go?

I think I’d enjoy visiting the Sugarsmiths’ Spectacular, which takes place in Marzipan Central Park every winter and is an interactive exhibition of all the amazing sugary creations that the Society of Sugarsmiths – who are essentially a bunch of incredibly talented confectioners – have produced that year. When Cinnamon and Rafi visit, the Sugarsmiths have built an enormous Honeycomb Hive, which is kind of like a hedge maze made entirely out of honeycomb, with a gigantic golden tree in the centre and lots of Sugarsmiths handing out delicious treats.

Another location I’d love to visit is the Royal Profiterole Palace, which is home to Marzipan’s royal family. As well as being the fanciest, most glamorous palace you can imagine, it’s surrounded by acres of gardens and fruit orchards, and it contains more than a few unsavoury secrets for Cinnamon and her friends to discover… but you’ll have to wait until book two to find out more!

Cinnamon discovers that being good at something different from what people expect can be a strength. Was that an important idea you wanted readers to take from the story? 

Yes, it was important to me that this book explored how we all have different skills, talents and struggles, because those differences are things to be celebrated rather than resisted. When you’re young, it can often be hard to navigate the various pressures of school, hobbies, social groups and family life, but part of growing up and discovering your own identity and interests is learning that you don’t always have to fit into the boxes that other people have made for you. Following your own path can be difficult, but it can also bring so much joy. Imagine how boring it would be if we were all the same! 

Also, as an autistic and non-binary person, I know how being neurodivergent or LGBTQ+ in a world that’s not always accepting can make some of these experiences even more complicated, so I really wanted Cinnamon’s world to be a place where every reader could feel welcome, supported, valued and able to be their most authentic self.

What was the hardest part of writing your first Cinnamon Crumb mystery?

Not only is The Great Cake Caper my first middle-grade book as an author and illustrator, it’s also the first time I’ve written a mystery story, so it was definitely a learning curve figuring out how to construct an exciting plot that was chock-full of twists, turns, and a breadcrumb trail of clues for Cinnamon and her friends to follow… plus a few red herrings, of course! 

Now that I’ve written the second book in the Cinnamon Crumb series, I’ve discovered that the section I most struggle with comes roughly two-thirds of the way into the story. By this point, the crime has taken place, the suspects have been identified and your detectives have uncovered a sprinkling of clues, but as the author, you have to work out how to neatly tie everything together to solve the mystery – a bit like trying to make a perfect pecan plait. That can often be very difficult, although it’s immensely satisfying when you finally manage it!

Because you both write and illustrate the book, do you usually imagine the pictures first or the words first?

What tends to happen is that I can see the story playing out like a movie in my head, so I’m usually able to visualise the different characters and locations at the same time as listening to those characters’ conversations and watching the events of the story unfold. After that, it’s a case of translating those scenes inside my head into paragraphs and pictures, which sounds an awful lot simpler than it actually is! 

In terms of making the book, however, you have to write it before you start on the illustrations, because the text has to be edited and laid out before you can decide where the artwork is going to go. Trying to do it the other way round would make everything much more complicated, because you’d constantly have to redraw things every time you changed part of the story.

What is your favourite baking-themed name or pun in the book?

I do have a soft spot for Fred Velvet, who owns a cake shop by the River Chia that only sells red velvet cake. He looks suspiciously like Father Christmas because of his long red cloak and white beard, and even though he’s perhaps not the most talented baker in Marzipan, this never stops him trying his best or enjoying the baking process.

As for baking jokes, it’s not really a pun, but there’s one point towards the end of the book where a cake is described as looking ‘like it had been sat on, thrown from the top of a tower block, then scraped up and put back together again by a person with eclairs for hands.’ For some reason, the utter ridiculousness of that image never fails to make me laugh. 

Where do you most like to write your books, and what does your ideal writing space look like? 

In the summer, I love to sit outside, because a bit of fresh air and sun never fails to make even the trickiest of edits a little easier to work through! I also enjoy working in cafes, partly because it’s an excuse to enjoy a nice coffee and a slice of cake, but also because writing can be quite solitary and having a change of scene can kickstart my imagination.

However, the place in which I spend most time writing and illustrating my books is my art studio at home. I’ve got a wide desk which is always cluttered with art materials and sketchbooks, big windows that let in lots of natural light, and when the weather gets colder, I like to have a scented candle burning nearby, and a big mug of hot chocolate to power me through whatever I’m working on. 

Without giving away any secrets, what can readers look forward to from Cinnamon Crumb next?

The second book in the Cinnamon Crumb series is called The Royal Biscuit Burglary, and it really is one of my favourite things I’ve ever written. Cinnamon and her friends are desperate for their next big case, so when a priceless solid gold custard cream is stolen from the Royal Profiterole Palace, Cinnamon is secretly delighted – after all, it’s the perfect opportunity to use her newfound detective skills to solve the biggest mystery in Marzipan! 

To whet your appetite, there are secret seaside hideouts, a deadly biscuit dunk-off competition, a surprising number of antique clocks, an incredibly adventurous cat, and one massive hat (well, two, actually – one is very tall, and the other is very wide). However, with so many unsavoury suspects and a generous serving of secrets to uncover, Cinnamon soon discovers that catching the custard cream crook will be no mean feat, and it will take all her sleuthing prowess to take the culprit into custody… or should I say, custardy?