Northumberland cake maker receives "five figure investment"

A Northumberland jewelery designer-turned-cake-maker has received a five-figure investment from the North East Small Loan Fund.

Autumn Rabbitts has been running a cake-making business from her home in Alnwick for the last seven years, creating wedding cakes and other celebration cakes under the Plumb & Rabbitts brand for clients across and outside the North East.

Autumn worked with regional fund management firm NEL Fund Managers to secure the £24.5k Small Loan Fund investment needed for the project. The loan has been used to furnish the new bakery, bring in the equipment needed to make the cakes and support a marketing drive around the opening.

Subsequently, Four new jobs have been created at the bakery.

Autumn said: “I’ve loved baking ever since I was a child, and when I was working towards my Master’s degree, I could see how the skills I was learning could be applied to icing and sugar work in cake baking too.

“Plumb & Rabbitts has grown through a combination of word of mouth and our social media presence, and has become a successful business in its own right, but I’ve always felt there was a gap in the market here for something which reflected some of the sparkle that Alnwick has gained from its film and historical connections.

“We imagined Sweet Solstice as the sort of bakery into which characters from JK Rowling’s books might step and will be carrying on with the magical theme, with new cakes being created every week that will each come with their own spells written on pieces of parchment.

Autumn concluded: “Being in the shadow of the castle is certainly helping to create the right kind of atmosphere and we’ve had a great response from both local people and visitors to the town in our first few days.

“Working with the NEL team was a very straightforward process and their investment has enabled us to put all the plans we had in place for Sweet Solstice into action in time for the most magical time of the year.”

Abigail Cook, investment associate at NEL Fund Managers, added: “Autumn has paired her baking and design skills in a truly unique way to build one successful business and it’s exciting to be part of her plans to create another one.”