Baked & Caked Sheffield: Popular bakery closes due to cost of living crisis

A much-loved Sheffield bakery that launched during Covid has closed due to the cost of living crisis.

Baked & Caked closed its premises on Chesterfield Road, Meersbrook, and has ceased online orders. But owners Wendy and Andy Dillon have vowed to "bounce back very soon" in a different format.

The couple broke the news on Facebook: "Very hard post to write. Our time here has come to an end. Everyone knows how hard it is for small businesses to survive this sh*tshow and barely surviving is not the best way to move forward.

"Our customer base is amazing and what we have achieved here has been incredible. We have to take into account our own well being and our own future."

The shop opened in late 2020 as a way of surviving Covid. The business started out more than a decade ago as a wholesale cake 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 pandemic hit orders from customers including Sheffield University Students' Union, The Light cinema, coffee shops and restaurants “suddenly stopped.”

The couple thought a shop in a "strong community" and the new ‘buy local’ ethos would save them - and it did. But the soaring costs of everything from ingredients to electricity has proven too much.

In one of their final posts the couple hinted at their new direction: "As we move forward we are definitely in a position to discuss any future weddings, parties. Any numbers up to 80ish. Any menu can be discussed."

That was followed by: "We are still very sad. Getting on with new jobs. We will bounce back very soon, just in a different format. Miss you all."