TikTok: Why Dolly’s Desserts in South Yorkshire is racking up millions of views, likes and followers

Dolly’s Desserts, based in Barnsley, is a family-run business selling desserts of all kinds such as homemade gelato, brownies, waffles, crepes and lots more.

The mother and daughter team began in 2019 as ‘Dolly’s’ in a market kitchen, specialising in ice-cream rolls, and from there, the business evolved and grew into a shop where they now make and sell their own desserts.

Charlie Smark, owner of Dolly’s Desserts, says the TikTok adventure, which has seen them rack up millions of likes, began during lockdown.

"It was during lockdown, and obviously everybody was at home and I was just like everyone else, going on TikTok because that’s what everyone did,” said Charlie.

"I just liked it and I’ve always wanted to make videos – so when we did re-open after the first lockdown, when I was working I just started filming it. It wasn’t for marketing purposes or anything like that, I just really enjoyed making the videos.

"I just wanted to make videos on TikTok for fun, and then it all just blew up from there – I didn’t expect anything from it at all.”

Dolly’s Desserts’ TikTok page now stands at over 1.2 million followers, 52.4 million likes and has racked up millions upon millions of views.

Uploading daily, the business racks up hundreds of thousands of views per video and has even had some videos go viral, reaching more than a million TikTok viewers.

In just the past two weeks, the dessert specialists have had to videos hit over a million views, with a Stranger Things inspired dessert video racking up 1.9 million viewers.

On June 2, Dolly’s Desserts had another viral hit when a creative waffle dessert video racked up over 3 million viewers and almost 90,000 likes.

This year, the most successful hit by far the business has seen was on February 10 when an ice-cream scooping montage reached an incredible 11 million viewers, and amassed over 630,000 likes.

Dolly’s Desserts’ followers and loyal fans on TikTok are clearly invested in the creative work of the mother and daughter team, with several videos based on questions from the fans asking the team to make particular desserts – and the team obliging.

The business has recently begun a new campaign focused on teaching their customers to bake it themselves with new cookie dough kits. The kits, which are on sale on Dolly’s Desserts’ website, come with all the ingredients and instructions you need to make the perfect cookie dough dessert.

The kits also come in an array of toppings, from Kinder Bueno, to Oreo and also Lotus.

Now receiving plenty of attention from their viral hits, Dolly’s Desserts can be found in Barnsley’s Market Kitchen, a food dining area in the heart of town offering different foods from all over the world.

Everything they do at Dolly’s Desserts can be found on their TikTok page here.