A man who started making cheesecakes during the pandemic when he was furloughed is about to open a second shop in Nottinghamshire.
Business is booming for Mike Jones, aka Big Mike, whose delicious cheesecakes have been going down a storm since he first began selling them via social media.
Just over a year after he opened his first shop on Carlton Hill, the business is expanding to Beeston.
READ MORE: Get the latest Beeston stories from Nottinghamshire Live
Big Mike's Fat Kitchen will be opening in High Road in premises last used as a deli.
Cheesecakes are sold by the slice (or as he says, "a big fat wedge -we don't do slivers"), half or whole.
Mike said: "We are buzzing about shop number two and can’t wait to get open. It feels like the right time for us to expand and challenge ourselves.
"When we were first looking for a shop 18 months ago we were looking at either Beeston or Carlton and when we got the green light on Carlton we just knew we wanted our next one - if it was a success - to be Beeston.
"Every time I go to Beeston the high street is bustling, people everywhere and businesses seem to be doing great. We also deliver to Beeston regularly so they seem to love what we’re offering."
His range of standard cheesecakes includes Jammie Dodger, Kinder Bueno, lemon, and strawberry. A more premium deluxe range offers Ferrero Rocher, Galaxy Billionaires and Vanilla Rainbow.
Specials are whipped up for occasions and with Valentine's Day just around the corner he has conjured up a limited edition cheesecake with Caramilk and Gold Bar.
Mike had been working as a service adviser for Audi - a job he'd been in for a year - when he was furloughed during the first lockdown in 2020.
With spare time on his hands, it gave him the opportunity to get stuck into cooking in the kitchen of his new home in Bingham.
At first he blogged photos of his breakfasts and dinners - from a sausage, bacon and egg bagel to a fancy sea bass risotto and Sunday roast.
He made his first cheesecake for his partner Jess Graham's birthday - and because he didn't have an electric whisk he improvised by attaching a hand whisk to the end of a drill.
After posting a photo of the rainbow unicorn cheesecake on Instagram, the rest is history. He sold 500 of his delicious creations within three months, proving the demand was there.
He said: "We never thought it was going to take off as well as it has. We’re in the process of renovating a kitchen behind our shop on Carlton Hill, ready to provide for both shops and hopefully more in the future.
"From where I started making a cheesecake up for Jess with a hand whisk attached to the end of a drill in lockdown to opening our second shop, we still can’t believe it."
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