In 2013 I became vegan, for the animals. I hated the level and extent of the cruelty that we inflict on animals in animal agriculture. I wanted to offer delicious cake choices that used only plant ingredients.
In the past ten years, the word vegan has gone from being thought of as alien and weird (perhaps the word 'vogon' from Douglas Adams didn't help!) to being an everyday term that almost everyone understands. Back in 2013, as a big fan of cake, and coffee shops, I discovered that at that time there were not a huge number of high-quality choices for vegan cake lovers. After sampling vegan offerings in various shops and cafes, I thought, "I can do that!" and began to bake vegan cakes. The very first vegan cake I ever made was a chocolate cake, and I recall the feeling of amazement and revelation that it was actually possible make a cake without butter or eggs!
In 2015, I set up a market stall in Hebden Bridge market, selling my vegan cakes, and gradually widening my range. In 2016, I began to look for premises to open my own vegan cake shop. While searching, I spent the summer of 2016 running my own small pop-up vegan bistro, Shallot, in the centre of Hebden Bridge. In the autumn, I moved into shop premises in Mytholmroyd and opened My Kind of Cake - the previous incarnation of Kind Cake Co. I set up various social media profiles, one of which was @KindCakeCo. One day, my mother spotted the name and her face lit up - she said that's a great name for a cake company...! I agreed, and thenceforward the Kind Cake Co, it became.
In late 2017 the Kind Cake Co moved premises from Mytholmroyd to Hebden Bridge, and had lots of fun (and very hard work) supplying cakes, pies, waffles and many other vegan offerings from our little shop on Albert Street, with a fab team of employees. However, I couldn't sustain the shop, and gave it up to run the Kind Cake Co from my flat in the centre of the town.
In 2022, I finally relocated to Mytholmroyd and now bake all your cakes from a dedicated vegan cake kitchen at 35 White Houses, on Burnley Road.
And, that's the history of the Kind Cake Co! Thanks for reading!