How a new cake shop in Sheffield is serving unique treats, saving a city business and creating jobs

Baked & Caked has launched an outlet on Chesterfield Road, Meersbrook, in the unit last occupied by the Spinning Discs record shop, which has moved about 200 metres up the street to bigger premises.

The business is run by couple Andy and Wendy Dillon, and started nearly a decade ago as a wholesale company supplying brownies and their signature product, the Scoffington – a cube of vegan sponge cake dipped in ganache, coated in biscuit crumb and finished off with frostings and toppings.

But when the coronavirus pandemic hit, Andy and Wendy feared they would lose the firm they had worked hard to build up.

"When lockdown happened we essentially lost a big bulk of our wholesale trade,” said Andy. "We were supplying to places like Sheffield University Students' Union, The Light cinema, coffee shops, restaurants – it suddenly stopped.”

They switched to online sales and deliveries, but soon realised this was an unsustainable model.

“It quickly became apparent that wasn't going to save our business,” said Andy. “You need hundreds of orders a week to try and cope with that. We were worried everything was going to go to pot and that we'd lose everything."

Then, through speaking to the owners of Create Coffee – another Chesterfield Road shop – the couple learned Spinning Discs was relocating.

“I thought: ‘Right, this is going to save us. We need to be in that little spot’,” said Andy, who believes opening up in a suburb is ‘definitely preferable right now’ given the difficulties city centres are facing from a lack of footfall.

“A lot more people are choosing to buy locally. In the city centre you've got a higher rate value and higher rent. We'd never be able to even consider taking somewhere in the city centre.”

The shop employs four staff as well as Andy and Wendy, who trained at Michelin-starred restaurant Le Gavroche. A full-time baker has also been hired for its off-site bakery.

Meersbrook is a ‘strong community’, Andy said.

“We've got Just Falafs, The Bhaji Shop, Create Coffee, Spinning Discs, The Incredible Nutshell – it's a good little run of independents now. I couldn't think of a more perfect place for us to be.”

Baked & Caked’s menu features vegan and non-vegan cakes and brownies, plus pastries, savouries and flour-free items.

“We've had to re-educate ourselves from traditional baking techniques,” Andy said.

“We want someone to eat a vegan product, realise it's delicious and surprise them. People have this conception it can't be delicious if it doesn't have cream, butter or milk in it.”

One speciality is the Baked & Caked bronut – a vegan brioche doughnut.

“To create a vegan brioche that is so light and fluffy is putting us on the map,” said Andy.

And the place is even turning heads when the premises are shut – under the shop’s sign, hand-painted by Sheffield-based artist Mike Blackboards, is a mural on the shutters by graffiti artist Misterprone, depicting a thrilled-looking girl holding a fork in front of an array of cakes.

“It's a fantastic piece,” said Andy.

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