Danielle Edgington used to wake up, go to her catering job, come home and bake all evening. Now she wakes up and bakes all day – and the queue outside her garden shed stretches down the street.
Eight months ago, Edgington set up a cake shed in Kings Heath, Birmingham, to sell spare baked goods. It became so popular that the 41-year-old quit her full-time job as a catering manager. “It’s taken over my life,” she said. “I’ve just not been able to keep up with the demand so I’ve decided to go full-time.”
“Cake sheds earn bakers up to £1,000 a week but face crackdown from councils enforcing tighter licensing rules.”
Her Lavender Cake Shed now brings in between £500 and £1,000 a week. Customers travel from neighbouring towns like Redditch and Solihull to sample her cookies, brownies and lemon drizzle. She credits her TikTok account for much of the interest. “I’ll get messages off customers saying, ‘what have you got in the shed today? Because we are travelling from a bit further out’,” she said. “To see a queue out there is just unbelievable. It’s quite humbling really to see.”
The shed is open seven days a week from 09:00 to 21:00 BST. Demand is so high that Edgington, a chef for 20 years who launched her business during the Covid pandemic delivering afternoon teas and birthday cakes, now bakes full-time. “It’s a lot of cake,” she said.
But the sweet trend that has turned garden cupboards into mini bakeries across the country could be under threat. As the movement grows, some councils are considering enforcing tighter licensing rules on the sheds, which rely on honesty-box payments. Dedicated cake shedders say that if this happens, they could be forced to close down.
“They are definitely becoming a feature in our landscape and are spreading from the countryside to the urban environment,” said Bronya Seifert of Daisy Cake Company. “It’s wonderful.”
One cake shed community online said it was getting up to 400 new members on Facebook a week. “Over the past few months the group has grown exponentially,” said Susanne Niess, of That’s Cake by Susanne.
For now, Edgington’s shed thrives – but the looming council scrutiny could change everything.