Glenda Young, Author (@glendayoung-author.bsky.social)

We're baking a special batch of pink slices for a big photoshoot in London They’re Sunderland’s signature snack - and the humble pink slice is soon to hit the Big Smoke for a special photoshoot. Local author Glenda Young is in the midst of writing her latest novel, The Bakery Girls, which is set in 1902 in a bakery in the slums of Sunderland’s East End. Inspired by Sunderland’s love of the sweet treat, the novel will feature the fictional birth place of the pink slice. The book isn’t released until February 2027, but publisher Headline are already planning the photo shoot for the cover - and they’ve made a special bakery commission to bring pink slices to the masses. Long-running city bakery Müller, in Villette Road, have been tasked with creating a special batch of pink slices this month, which will be sent down to London for the photoshoot. As well as appearing on the cover of the book in all its formats, the resulting image will also be used on all publicity material. Glenda said: “The book will go in all supermarkets as well as bookshops including Waterstones, TGJones and all indie bookshops. “Müllers will be credited inside the book and I am beyond grateful to them for their help on this and while researching the history of pink slice. “I visited their shop on Villette Road and had a wonderful conversation with Charlie Müller who was very generous with his knowledge and time.” She added: “When I began researching the history of pink slice in Sunderland, I could only find information that went as far back as the 1923 Bero cookbook where there's a recipe for Bero Rich Jam Cakes. “I was interested to delve further back than the 1923 Bero book and spoke to Emma Kay, a writer and food historian, author of 'A History of British Baking'. “Emma advised me that iced shortbread with jam was traditionally a Scottish delicacy and from there I discovered Empire Biscuits. These are almost the same as our pink slice, but with white icing not pink, and a cherry on the top too! Interestingly, Empire Biscuits were called German Biscuits before the advent of WW1. “However when I asked Emma Kay if a direct link could be made between Sunderland pink slice being of German origin, she said: ‘Most recipes descend from overseas and there's very little we can actually claim to be 'British'. The pink slice could just have been made up one day in someone's kitchen’!” In the interest of research, Glenda has been sampling pink slices at other bakeries around the city and if anyone knows more on the history of the sweet treat, feel free to contact the author on her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/GlendaYoungAuthor http://dlvr.it/TRXtM0