Bakery rises to the occasion with its first shop in Wellingborough

The Little Bakery of Happiness, which was established seven years ago from a home kitchen in Northampton, is opening at Unit 42 at Nene Court Shopping Village in Wellingborough this Friday.

A former bookshop at the old Victorian gasworks site at the centre has been transformed into a production facility with a walk-in bakery counter at the front of the premises.

The walk-in bakery will sell a range of hand-made sweet and savoury treats, including cakes, brownies, pies, tarts, scotch eggs and sausage rolls.

It will initially be open on Thursdays and Fridays between 11am and 3pm and on Saturdays from 10am to 2pm, with a view to extending hours in the future.

The production facility will make small-batch sweet and savoury treats for coffee shops, restaurants and catering outlets across the county, as well as supplying farm shops and delis.

The new venture is the coming together and re-branding of award-winning businesses The Happy Little Cake Company and Most Marvellous Baking, which have been producing cakes, pies, cereals and snacks from a domestic kitchen set-up since 2013.

Vicky Robertson, owner of The Little Bakery of Happiness, said: “I started the business from home and over the first couple of years saw steady, manageable growth.

"But with an expanding product range and the introduction of a wholesale arm to the business, demand soon outstripped capacity and so the hunt for a bigger space from which to bake began.

“After a long search, I am so pleased to now be relocating to Nene Court where I will have the space not only to increase production and respond to the demand from my wholesale customers, but also to open a walk-in bakery for people to pop in and buy a little slice of happiness – where they’d previously only have been able to do so at food festivals and events I was attending.”

It is also a specialist gluten-free bakery whose customer base extends far beyond people with coeliac disease and gluten-intolerance.

Vicky explained: “When I was diagnosed with coeliac disease, one thing I really missed was the sharing of food, so I have always been mindful of creating great tasting food that everyone will be fighting over, rather than food that is just for those who need to eat gluten-free."

The company's product range was won numerous awards over the years, including prizes at the British Pie Awards, the Northamptonshire Food & Drink Awards, Free From Food Awards, Great Taste Awards, Good Choice! Quality Food Awards and at the National Cupcake Championships.

For more information about the bakery, visit the website www.thelittlebakeryofhappiness.co.uk/ or search for its social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.