Sweetly Special Breakfasts is a small Bristol business, run by a lovely lady called Lilly. She delivers delicious breakfasts to people all over the city, focussing heavily on sweet treats to start special days off with a good feeding. That's where I come in! 

Lilly firmly believes (and I agree!) that special days like Mothering Sunday or birthdays should be memorable from start to finish. Hampers from Sweetly start the day off perfectly, and keep you going throughout the day, enough goodies for lunch, elevenses, afternoon tea, supper... The delivery includes fresh flowers, balloons, tea and coffee, a personal card and of course, cakes. And if you're vegan, your home baked cake comes from me at 280 Bakes! If you're ordering for a child, the package also includes a party bag.

The main product I am helping Lilly (see her sunny face below) with is the Perfect Gift Breakfast - see above to the left - and is now available!

Imaginative. Delicious. Dairy-free. 

Those are the three words I would use to describe what comes out of the kitchens of Fab Fudge. You can find out more about Fab Fudge on a blog I wrote back in 2017, but what you need to know is right here: Their (plastic-free!) fudge is UNBEATABLE.

The company's founder, Jill, started her business in 2016, two months or so behind me, and we met at a local networking event. Since then, we've been working together every so often to help each other out, and keeping each other in sweet treats! 

​Jill and her team have released their Christmas selection for 2020, and I was lucky enough to taste the first batches off the shelf. 

At the time of writing, Gingerbread fudge wasn't available on Fab Fudge's online store, but it's coming - and you'll be glad it did! I am a late convert to ginger flavoured things, but I'm really into it now. My firey gingerbread is YUMMY! So when Jill said she had a ginger delight up her sleeve, I jumped on it! Smooth, melt-in-the-mouth, and (like all Fab Fudge) 100% vegan. The ginger kick is subtle, but the creamy taste really won me over. 
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Christmas cake may be my favourite cake, and the fudge version didn't disappoint. I love the triple layer fudge design - new for 2020. Rich, fully-festive, and it looks just like a mini slice with actual marzipan and icing! Christmas Cake fudge is my new favourite (sorry apricot fudge!). 

If you're looking for the perfect gift, I can only say, GO FAB FUDGE!! Even Theo Paphitis is a fan - you simple have to try something new with Fab Fudge's dairy-free fudge. 

Thanks Jill, and I hope it's not too early to wish you and yours a very merry and profitable Christmas. 

Louise
280 Bakes

-- A personal blog today, and I'm attaching a trigger warning right here. --
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We've had a lot of great news lately in our family - three of us getting new jobs, El Husbandio's residence being confirmed, our house move progressing... But a tragic event knocked me a bit sideways last week: a very good friend of mine's partner passed away unexpectedly. 

Cake isn't the answer to everything, but baking for her, my customers, and my other friends and family managed to take my my mind off such horrible circumstances for a short while. 

There's something cathartic about mixing, baking and decorating a cake; ​I've always baked when I feel sad or low. It helps me stay productive, it's a great way to find a 'flow' state of mind (a recognised tactic in mental health - Very Well Mind explains it better than I can), and I can share the cake with friends and family. I remember saying to my housemate several years ago, when a boyfriend had broken up with me, that I was going to bake my way through the shock and pain. And since it's World Mental Health Day today, I thought it was time I posted about my therapeutic kitchen fun. 

Distraction tactics are very useful sometimes, and my lil' business certainly provides that, for which I am grateful. So if you need some cake, don't be shy, drop me a line, I need to keep busy! 

Does anyone else bake to keep the dark away?

Louise
280 Bakes

P.S. No part of me is using a tragic event to capitalise on here, that would never be my intention. I'm simply sharing how important baking is to me and how it's helped my mental wellbeing. I'm a supporter of mental health awareness - I guess you may be sick of me talking about it if you know me!

​A, you've left broken hearts behind you in wonderfully caring and loving people. You'll be missed. 

We're working with Highways England and Sustrans to feed the community at this special event. Come and learn what's happening in the BS11 area of Bristol in terms of new cycle paths and sustainable transport options - and come hungry!

Our Catie and Louise will be there, and bringing some of the delicious home baked cakes we're known for. Do say hi and tell us you saw the post on our blog!

More event details on this Facebook event page. 

See you there!

The Team @ 280 Bakes

It was announced that Protein World had carried out a survey revealing that 40% of British people said Lemon Drizzle was their favourite cake. Chocolate Brownie, Chocolate Fudge Cake and Carrot Cake were close contenders for the top spot apparently, but I had to investigate. 

What do my circle of friends and family prefer, and do they conform to the national preference? I sent a quick poll to a few people on WhatsApp, chosen purely because I thought they'd reply!

Here's my (unscientific) findings...

Chocolate cake x6              Cherry cake
Cinnamon cakes x2           Rosewater and Pistachio cake
Spiced Apple cake             Carrot cake x5
Fruit cake x2                        Lemon Drizzle x5
Red velvet x2                       French Fancies
Battenberg                          Coffee cake

Interesting! Of the 28 people who responded (I discounted those who reeled off a list of cakes the loved!), Chocolate cake was the front runner with 21% of the vote. Lemon Drizzle was a meer 17% of the vote, joint second with Carrot cake. That's a little reflective of the national vote in terms of types of cakes, if not the popularity of each, but poor old Brownies didn't appear once in my poll. 

​Maybe I roll in more cake-educated circles, or with people who are a bit more adventurous with their food choices (Rosewater and Pistachio!!). Maybe 280 Bakes has helped people close to us realise there's more to life than Lemon Drizzle. I certainly hope so!

Oh, and my personal favourite? Mango Yoghurt cake. Or Carrot cake. No, Christmas cake! Argh, see, I'm as bad as you!!

What's YOUR favourite cake? Let me know in the comments below. 

Have a great weekend, 

Louise
280 Bakes
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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

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 third annual Flood & Coast conference, organised by the Environment Agency, was held this week - and we were there! Our Louise was asked to make a cake in the shape of a remote controlled river monitoring boat, an "ARC-boat". It's a surf board-like craft worth over £16,000, used to measure speed and depth of rivers, and other data to aid flood management efforts.

​The Agency had sold it's 100th boat, which gave them a fabulous reason to celebrate. 

​The cake was cut by the Chef Executive of the Environment Agency Sir James Bevan, the Director of Flood and Coastal Risk Management John Curtin, and Louise. 

Feedback on the cake, a chocolate sponge decorated in an eye-catching lime green to mimic a real ARC-boat, came... flooding in, post event on our Twitter.