Fancy a gooey brownie or a zingy slice of lemon drizzle with that cup of tea? If you’re lucky, one of your neighbours will have something delicious waiting for you to grab and go from the cake shed on their drive.
The trend for these cute home baking businesses has been booming over the last couple of years. If you haven’t seen one, the map on cakesheds.com will help you find your nearest.
Some are fun side hustles for people who love to bake; others are commercial businesses. The joy of the cake shed is that the owner can choose how often it’s open. Some have goodies for sale seven days a week; others only operate at weekends. Once the shed has been loaded, the owner can get on with their day.
Generally, sheds aren’t manned, but instead use the kind of honesty box system that we’re more used to seeing for eggs, fruit and vegetables in the countryside. With so few of us carrying cash, contactless payments are the norm.
And – assuming you’re trying one of everything (because why wouldn’t you?) – you may also find a calculator to help you work out what you need to pay. On offer, you’re likely to find pecan maple blondies, red velvet slices, and cornflake caramel brownies to rival those in M&S.
Often you’ll find gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan options, too. Now all you need to do is tuck in...
Butter & Crumb
Butter & Crumb
4 Hurst Road, East Molesey KT8 9AF
Michele sells eight varieties of cake – all gluten-free – between 8am and 8pm every Saturday. Stock varies week to week, but may include pistachio-licious Dubai chocolate brownies, raspberry cheesecake blondies, and a luxurious chocolate mint brownie featuring a layer of Aero mint butter cream and a dark chocolate ganache topping.
“The idea of doing something with gluten-free baking has always been a priority for me,” says Michele Gray, whose Butter & Crumb bake shed is entirely gluten-free.
“While one in every 100 people has coeliac disease, meaning they cannot tolerate any gluten at all, a further one in ten have gluten-related adverse effects. They get foggy-brained, or suffer digestive or inflammatory problems after eating wheat and other ingredients that contain gluten.
Butter & Crumb
“Around ten years ago I realised I was one of these people. My sister had discovered the same, and, around the same time, our brother was diagnosed with full-blown coeliac disease. We all became passionate about baking the recipes we’d grown up with – Dad’s pasties, Mum’s poppy seed torte – and trying to make them taste just as good without the gluten.
“Having grown up in the US, I loved making cookies. But British people far prefer lemon drizzle cake, carrot cake, red velvet, and muffins. After a lot of trial and error, I’ve found ways to make GF versions of all of these, and everyone seems to love them – regardless of whether they need to drop gluten from their diet. Most popular is my cornflake caramel brownie, which sells out almost as soon as it goes in the shed.”
Sweet Cheezus
Sweet Cheezus
3 Foster Avenue, Windsor, SL4 4NQ
For Jenna Wheeler, her baking journey started with making cakes for family, and puddings for dinner party guests – who convinced her that her cheesecakes were good enough to sell.
Open between 10am and 9pm on weekends and bank holidays, you’ll find school cakes, brownies and NYC cookies in Jenna’s cake shed. “I also sell these by the box, load on pre-orders,” she says.
“I eventually thought ‘why not?’ and I registered with my local council. Word got around, and on Christmas Eve I had a queue of people at my front door, collecting cheesecakes as an alternative to the usual Christmas pudding and mince pies.
Sweet Cheezus
“As the business evolved, I introduced a variety of other bakes. Then, after seeing on TikTok how cake sheds were going viral in other parts of the country, but nowhere near me, I decided to open one of my own.
“Already having a registered home baking business made it so much easier to get going, but I still watched tutorial videos for research and spent a couple of weeks decorating my shed and setting up my payment system.
“I now bake on a Thursday and Friday, and spend Friday evening packing and labelling. Then the cakes go on sale, and I know they definitely taste good, because I leave a notebook out for comments and I get so many compliments.”
Flour and Fox
Flour and Fox
24 Waverley Road, Oxshott, KT22 0RZ
It was via social media that Jasmine Forsey first had the idea of running her own cake shed.
Open Saturdays and Sundays 9am to 8pm. Jasmine’s bestsellers include caramel cornflake brownies, old school cake, and chocolate chip cookies, but you will also find limited edition flavours, like her Biscoffi blondie, Oreo brownie and rainbow sprinkle birthday cake blondies.
“The name is inspired by my little boy, Fox, who’s two,” says Jasmine. “When I stumbled across bake sheds as a concept, I knew that this was something I could do that would enable me to spend more time with him.
“I loved the idea of a simple self-service shed where people could pick up homemade bakes. It felt like such a lovely way to connect with the local community without needing to be at markets every weekend or having to arrange collections. It gave me the flexibility to sell from home without losing precious family time at the weekend.
“It took a few months to get started: I researched regulations, registered with my local council, completed my food hygiene training, and sorted my insurance. I wanted to make sure I was doing everything properly from the very start. And there was also a lot of trial and error in creating recipes that not only tasted great but also held their texture for several days. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that people really value quality and consistency.
“There’s a lot of work behind the scenes. If you’re thinking of starting a cake shed, take your time, make sure you’re meeting all the legal requirements, and don’t be afraid to share everything on social media posts. People love to see the journey and the person behind the business.”
