We celebrated our second birthday today, and this is how it went down! First, we announced an expansion in our business! From today, we have bakers based in Stroud, Gloucestershire, who are delivering our cakes in the town. Find out more here, including how to join our team of bakers. Then, we actually WENT to Stroud! Given the main part of our birthday celebrations was the above announcement, we decided to surprise a business in Stroud with a cake. This is where Spacehoppers Co-working came in - we delivered a 280 Bakes branded cake (see the logo and BRIGHT PINK nature of said cake in the picture below!) to three entrepreneurs who were at the time working in the shared office space. A complete surprise to all and a welcome tea break from their hard work! We chose Spacehoppers because we've had previous experience in co-working environments and we love the vibe from entrepreneurs who work in such places. A big 'HELLO AND THANKS' goes to Ben at BeKagool who tweeted us a photo of the cake being enjoyed in the office after we left.  Finally, we popped along to St Andrew's Park, Bristol... We had to celebrate on 'home turf' too, of course! Word got to us that the Bristol Vegan Parents Group was meeting with the kids for a half term get-together, so we took them some complimentary cupcakes to sort out a snack for that lovely lot. The meeting point was "by the coffee hut in the centre", so cake and coffee worked out perfectly! A fabulous day - we feel well and truly celebrated! Thanks to all our willing cake eaters and our hard-working team. Here's to another successful year at 280 Bakes! Louise Owner of 280 Bakes
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we were SUPER excited to be asked along to speak at the Bristol Foodies Festival this month!  The Foodies Festival is an annual event in Bristol (and around the UK), bringing chefs and foodies together over a fantastic weekend of talks, music, demonstrations, classes and food stalls. Our Louise went along to speak at the cake and dessert stage in Bristol on the Friday afternoon (21st May 2018). She demonstrated how to make a vegan chocolate Guinness cake and shared samples to a willing and hungry crowd. "It was so much fun, a totally different thing for us to be doing," said Louise. "And I felt kind of 'Madonna' walking around with a head mic set on!" Well done Louise, maybe this is a start of something HUGE! More demos please.... 
Missed out on trying a sample from the Foodies Festival? We've posted the recipe for the vegan chocolate Guinness cake on our blog so you can try it yourself. And if you don't fancy baking, just contact us to order one! Big thanks to Charlotte White at Restoration Cake and the Foodies Festival team for inviting us along. See you again, we hope! The Team @ 280 Bakes
The team will be out and about this season with our cakes - come and find us at the following local events!  Subject to change, but we'll be there if we most possibly can. We do take pre-orders, if you'd like anything in particular - save yourself delivery and enjoy the community event at the same time! The Team @ 280 Bakes
Our Destiny and Louise went to the Bristol Viva Vegan Christmas Market this weekend, and did they nail it? Yes they did!Take a look at the amazing cakes the ladies took with them... and consequently sold to many, many hungry vegans! Everything from stewed plum cupcakes to gluten free gin and lemon cake, mince pie shortbread to a boozy Christmas cake - we had it all. If you see anything you like here, we'd be happy to bake anything for you again if you couldn't make the event - just contact us!
That was our final event for 2018, but we are starting to book on events for next year, so stay tuned for more information! The Team @ 280 Bakes
Wondering where you can find us this festive season? Here's your small but perfectly formed guide to which Christmas fayres we'll be baking our delicious cakes for this year! We'll be bringing out all the favourites (like Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake, Victoria Sponge, various cupcakes, Carrot Cake...), including some gluten free cakes. We'll bake some delicious new recipes for you, and festive goodies too. We start this weekend, so bring along your Tupperware and stock up! More information: Headley Park - Headley Park Church, St Peter's Rise, BS13 7LZ Wiltshire Vegan Fair - The Neeld, Chippenham, SN15 3ER Gloucester Vegan Fair ** UPDATE ** Apologies, this one is now not an event we will be attending. Viva Vegan - Student Union, Richmond Building, 105 Queen's Road, Bristol, BS8 1LN See you there! The Team @ 280 Bakes
At 280 Bakes, we love networking and supporting other small businesses in Bristol. Today we've invited #FabFudge, a small business raising money for a personal cause, to guest on our blog.  Thank you, Louise and team, we're excited to be here! Hi, my name is Jill Marriner. I would like to introduce you to our company, #FabFudge - a small, family-run business based in Hartcliffe, South Bristol creating small batch artisan fudge, including our ever-growing popular range of Vegan fudges. I have suffered from Multiple Sclerosis for over 15 years and am fundraising over $50,000 for stem cell replacement treatment (HSCT) in Moscow, as the procedure isn't yet fully available in the UK. Once the target has been reached – we're currently still £12000 short – we will be donating to AIMS (Auto Immune & Multiple Sclerosis), the only HSCT support charity in the UK, to help others during their journeys toward HSCT. The idea of #FabFudge started in 2016 when I started making fudge for family and friends, receiving lots of brilliant feedback. Many said the fudge was 'amazing' and that I should make it into a business to help with my fundraising. With the help of my husband, Tim (creative director and vegan fudge craftsman), and my son Josh, who runs the #FabFudge website and social media (among many duties!), we set to work trialing different recipes, selling at local markets. We now have a range of 40 flavours of fudge (plus winter boozy fudges & fudge Easter eggs!), including over 10 flavours of vegan fudge. We developed this secret recipe over a year, perfecting it slowly, ensuring a beautifully creamy texture. It has become a massive hit within the vegan community. Below are some photos of our vegan Oreo fudge, the chocolate orange variety, and on the right, our strawberry cream fudge. Yum!
We have regular sellout pitches at several local markets; regulars always know when we'll be back to supply their fudgy fix! We also sell online to individuals & independent vegan businesses, both in the UK and internationally. Our business is still home based, but is expanding rapidly and we hope to relocate in due course to a larger, dedicated facility (to save my husband constantly extending the house down the garden). Being a relatively small enterprise hasn't, however, stopped us from already fulfilling some very large wholesale orders! Find out more about #FabFudge and our quest to raise money for my treatment on our website, or you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Stay tuned for news of our Christmas specials! Thank you! Jill x Thank you Jill, great to learn a little more about #FabFudge. We wish you all the best for the future, and don't give up on your goals! We'll see you at Viva Vegan Festival in Bristol on 9th December! If you'd like to try some of Jill's fudge, we have free samples for the first three customers to order quoting 'FABFUDGE' when they order a cake or cupcakes from us! Offer ends Sunday 5th November. The Team @ 280 Bakes
Mental health awareness is not just for today, World Mental Health Day, when the world comes together to promote wellbeing. It's for every day. |
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David Buck's blog is also worth looking at - he's very open and honest, and it's a great blog if you want to understand the person behind a challenging mental health issue.
Sometimes, all that's needed is a chat. A cuppa and a slice of cake is an open doorway to gentle, meaningful discussion about how you or your friend/colleague/relative is feeling - just like what the Environment Agency in Bristol did today! They held a 'coffee and cake' (with our delicious Victoria Sponge - thanks guys!) natter to help spread the word that 'mental health' is not a dirty word.
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Why not post this image on the left on your Facebook today? We love it because the arrow cleverly points to your profile picture when you post it. Show you're listening!
Remember, it's ok NOT to be ok. Have some self-compassion and continue to breathe.
Be well,
The Team @ 280 Bakes
This weekend saw the return of the Goram Fair at Blaise Castle Estate, Bristol - and we were there with our home baked cakes!
The wet weather didn't put off Bristol families as they splashed through the fairground and stalls at the community event at Blaise Castle on Saturday - most, it seemed, stopping at our cake stall! Check out some of the delicious bakes we had for sale: gluten free, vegan, standard recipe cakes, Fairtrade cake, boozy bakes... We had it all.
We'd like to give a special mention to this guy, a father of a vegan who was particularly sceptical about the concept of vegan cakes. No eggs, no butter, no milk... How could that taste good? So, we gave him a cake to try, and he devoured the cupcake, almost whole. In his (tongue in cheek) words, "Wow, that does not taste like broccoli AT ALL!"
Glad to be of service - hope to see you again, sir!
The Team @ 280 Bakes
There was a Viking re-enactment event yesterday in Burnham-on-Sea, just down the road from us. We popped down with some bakes, and, it turns out, historical actors lurrrrve cake!
Thanks to the organisers for 'inviking' us along - see you again we hope! Check out some of the photo highlights from the day below: *NEW* Aero cupcake, toffee cake, blackberry cupcakes, Viking buns (couldn't resist these toppers on Amazon!), coffee cake, homemade Blackberry Jam Sponge, and various Vikings and event staff enjoying our cake!
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Our Louise, who was at the event, said "It was a great afternoon out - I actually learned a lot about Viking history too! Apparently our Viking buns were historically inaccurate as real Vikings didn't have horned helmets... I just told the customer his stomach wouldn't know the difference and to enjoy his cake!"
Keep your eyes on our Facebook, Twitter and newsletter for news of more events we'll be at this summer. You'll be the first to know!
The Team @ 280 Bakes
Today is our first birthday, here at 280 Bakes. We're so proud and pleased to have survived and thrived through to our first landmark birthday. Hooray for small business!
Over the last year we've gone from being porch sale cake stall to a bona fide company. So what have we achieved?
We held a coffee morning to celebrate all this with our 'friends of 280 Bakes' and our customers today, and here are the best photos from the event.
Over the last year we've gone from being porch sale cake stall to a bona fide company. So what have we achieved?
- We've developed a specialism for vegan cakes,
- We now employ five Bristol based bakers: Louise, Destiny, Debbie, Katy who bake and deliver, and Lloyda, who does the occasional event for us.
- Our unique service of CakeOD (cake delivered on demand) is a valued service across Bristol.
- We've been published in Boundless Magazine (a recipe), a review on Wriggle, an article on '5 places to enjoy 280 Bakes cake in Bristol' in Harboured Magazine, mentioned in the Wiltshire Gazette & Herald, South Bristol Voice, BS9 and Ambition Lawrence Weston local magazines (a feature and a review), and numerous foodie blogs.
- The Bristol Food Tour regularly orders our vegan peanut butter and chocolate cake for their vegan foodie tours.
- We have developed a huge network of 'foodie colleagues' who we enjoy supporting and love when they join in our cakey fun (e.g. Moor Beer, Fab Fudge, among others)
- In February, we delivered our 280th (a significant number in our business!) cake.
- We've raised money for Macmillan Cancer Support through coffee morning donations and other local fundraising events, and our bakers volunteer their skills for Free Cakes For Kids - Bristol.
- The business has been in profit from day one - a real start-up achievement!
- We've attended over 20 events in the last 12 months, from vegan food fairs to local carnivals and fetes.
We held a coffee morning to celebrate all this with our 'friends of 280 Bakes' and our customers today, and here are the best photos from the event.
Thank you to all who came out to celebrate with us - here's to another year's baking!
The Team @ 280 Bakes
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