New cafe to open in Northamptonshire after homemade cake business set up in lockdown exceeds expectations

A new cafe is set to open in a hotspot for small Northamptonshire businesses after a homemade cake start-up has grown rapidly.

Sophie Pardoe launched Whisk’d from her Northampton home in November 2020 after using baking as stress relief during lockdown when she lost her job as a food and beverage supervisor.

The now 23-year-old who only set the business up as a “small thing on the side to make some money” made such a success of selling cupcakes, brownies and celebration cakes that she has “taken the leap” and will be opening a cafe in Weedon next month.

Sophie said: “I’ve always enjoyed baking and I did it for stress relief during the pandemic, but my partner and I got sick of eating them all.

“My partner suggested I could sell them if I worked on my presentation, so I went for it.

“It was only supposed to be a small thing on the side to earn some money after losing my job, but it has gone really well and much better than I could have expected, so I decided at the start of the year that I wanted to scale it up.”

In January, the businesswoman and mum-of-two, started looking for a premises and came across a unit in the Royal Ordnance Depot in Weedon Bec.

Sophie fell in love with the buildings, the space and the environment and managed to secure another unit a short while later.

She added: “The buildings are amazing and all Grade II listed and there are loads of other local businesses here.

“It’s lovely to walk around and it’s a great environment to be in.

“There is still quite a lot to do in our space, but we are here everyday painting and renovating.”

As well as serving her own homemade cakes and brownies, Sophie will serve Roastery Coffee and will be working with Sauls of Spratton to serve their quiches, pastries and sausage rolls. She is keen to support as many local businesses as possible.

The cafe will also serve homemade milkshakes and hot chocolates.

Sophie will run the cafe single-handedly for the time being. Although she has big plans for the future.

“It will just be me and my six-month-old daughter running it to start with but the plan is to employ people in the future,” she continued.

“I would love to see the space develop to the point where people want to come here to meet up with friends and have book clubs. I want it to be the spot people think of first.

“I want people to come here for afternoon teas and hire my space for hen-dos and birthday parties.”

The cafe, which will have a children's play corner and will be dog friendly, will have the space to seat 40 people and all products will also be available for takeaway.

Whisk’d will open on Saturday June 11.

To find opening hours and more information, visit the Whisk’d Facebook page.