When Sweet House Bakery sold 2,000 cakes on opening day it wasn't a short-lived fad. Business for the shop in Arnold has just got better and better since the launch in October.
Five months on baker Steffanie Woodhouse and partner Mat Blood, who helps out in the shop, in Coppice Road, are about to expand, opening a new bakery and second shop selling mouth-watering chocolate cakes. The expansion will allow the business to triple, if not quadruple, production. "It's a huge unit," said Steffanie, who originally started baking at home as a hobby.
Steffanie said the kitchen behind the shop can no longer keep up with demand. Sweet House Bakery will be expanding to a new industrial-scale kitchen in Colwick but for now the exact location is under wraps. Customers will also be able to buy cakes from there..
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She said: "It's amazing, I never expected it. We open Wednesday to Saturday and pretty much every day we are selling out. I just physically can't bake enough. It's crazy.
"Because I did it from home, it's far bigger than my kitchen, so I thought it would be ok but it's not. I'm selling out far too fast. It's a good problem to have but I've been starting at 4am and finishing at 11pm just to fill that fridge. I'm exhausted.
"We're moving into a brand new unit. All the baking will be done there and distributed to the Arnold shop and there will be shop front in there as well so you can collect from the Colwick bakery."
Steffanie hopes to take on two more employees in the bakery and two at the Arnold shop. "Hopefully I can get some help and my life will become a little bit easier," she said.
The expansion plans will allow the business to move into nationwide postal boxes and sell at market stalls and food events. She said: "That was the aim for this shop to do all of those things but it's just been so busy I've not been able to. I've just been able to keep that counter stocked to not sell out by midday.
"There's people travelling near and far. We have a couple that come from Sheffield. They spend a substantial amount of money and fill their freezer up and once the freezer is empty they come back. People are travelling from all over to come and see us. It's insane.
"We sell about 700 to 1,000 cakes each day. This Mother's Day was absolutely mad. It was about 1,500 cakes plus Mother's Day boxes. I was naïve thinking it was going to be a hobby. I never expected it to be like this."
Steffanie has today got the keys for the unit, which is currently an empty shell. The next step is to kit it out with equipment with a view to open mid to late April.
Eventually she plans to increase the range of cakes once up and running but the first step will be to assess the demand for the current range, which includes brownies, rocky road, chocolate billionaires, cheesecakes and cookies. "We'll have a small team to start with. I don't want to take on too much and then the quality we have now slips," she said.
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