Let’s mark the occasion

Show your appreciation for our veterans on the 75th anniversary of VE Day, 8 May, with souvenir sweet treats, plus easy recipe ideas and cocktails to try at home over the bank holiday weekend

M& elevenseS

Join us, as we come together at 11am on Friday 8 May to mark the 75^th anniversary of VE Day. We’ll be raising a cup of the nation’s favourite brew (with biscuit or two) in honour of our World War Two heroes, after the national two-minute silence. We’d love you to come together and share your M& elevenseS with people in your household, or by phone or videocall.

Everyone loves talking about their favourite biscuit so to start the conversation, we have revealed our 10 most popular biscuits. Whether you’re a dunker or more of a biscuit traditionalist, we think there is something in here to make everyone’s M& elevenseS special:

Digestive biscuits
Milk chocolate digestives
All-butter shortbread fingers
Milk chocolate teacakes
Dark chocolate jaffa cakes
Jam sandwich creams
Ginger snaps
Dutch shortcakes
All-butter biscuits
Extremely chocolatey milk chocolate rounds

M&S biscuit developer, Natalie Tate says: “Elevenses is a great British institution dating all the way back to the late 18th century. Although our biscuits don’t quite date back that far, it’s great to see some of our first varieties, including ginger snaps, still in our list of most popular biscuits today. And yes… we do also count jaffa cakes as a biscuit!”

Spitfire shortbread tin and Spitfire beer

Make your mark

During World War Two, M&S colleagues supported the war effort by raising £5,000 towards a Spitfire, aptly named The Marksman. It went on to complete a number of successful missions and takes pride of place on our new commemorative Spitfire tin, which is filled with buttery Scottish shortbread tails. Since 2009, we’ve donated over £8.5M to The Royal British Legion, and will now be donating 5% of total Spitfire tin sales to continue supporting the Armed Forces community.*

Looking to raise a glass to VE Day at home? Pick up our VE Day special four-pack of Courage Best and Bombardier beers, created especially to mark the occasion.

Find the special shortbread tin and beers in store when you’re next shopping for your essentials.

Serve up the ultimate G&T

There’s nothing quite as quintessentially British as a gin and tonic, so it’s the perfect cocktail to shake up at home during the VE Day long weekend. Our London dry gin is a classic style, distilled and bottled in the UK to an exclusive recipe, with a fragrant juniper flavour. Try these easy ideas:

Pour gin over ice and top up with tonic. Serve with fresh strawberries, lime, mint and cucumber. Try skewering the strawberries and cucumber ribbons to make a fancy garnish
Serve your G&T with muddled strawberries for a pretty pink hue
Go classic and pour gin over ice then simply serve with a fresh lemon wedge

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Gin and tonic with strawberry and cucumber

Keep the bank holiday sweet

In need of some kitchen inspiration for the long weekend? Try our easy dessert ideas – perfect with our M&S Select Farms berries

Best of British tart
Bake a sheet of puff pastry until golden brown. Stir a spoonful of icing sugar into a tub of mascarpone, then spread all over the cooled pastry. Top with strawberries, blueberries and strawberries in a Union Jack design.

Berry-licious frozen yoghurt
Swirl a selection of fresh or frozen berries through natural yoghurt, along with a tablespoon of honey, to taste. Freeze then serve in ice cream cones or with extra fresh berries.

Beautiful berry sundaes
Simmer mixed berries with a little sugar to make a compote. Layer in glasses with creme fraiche, ice-cream, crumbled meringues or crumbled shortbread biscuits, and more fresh berries. Finish with a drizzle of compote.

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*5% from the sale of this product will be paid to Royal British Legion Trading Limited which gives its taxable profits to The Royal British Legion (Charity no. 219279) and Poppyscotland, (Scottish Charity No. SC014096). The donations due to each charity will be split according to population size, with Poppyscotland receiving 7% of the donation value