The owners of a popular cake business are celebrating sweet success after moving to a larger stall at Norwich Market so they can bake on-site and meet demand.
Best friends Mel Abel, 52, and Kim Cooper, 47, both from Hethersett, opened The Cuppie Hut at stall 19 in November 2018 and previously sold sweet treats from a renovated horsebox in Tombland.
Almost two years later, they have now moved to a new location on the market with a double stall at number 30 and 31, with room to bake there instead of having to do it all at home.
The items on offer include cupcakes, tray bakes, cookies and cake jars and each day there are three or four vegan options.
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They have taken on the stall from Folland Organics as the owners decided to leave after their delivery service of fruit and vegetables proved so popular in lockdown.
Mrs Abel and Mrs Cooper also adapted while The Cuppie Hut stall was closed and offered a nationwide postal service, which they are planning to restart once they have settled into their new premises.
Mrs Cooper said: “A website design company called Nu Image offered to make us a free website and within a few weeks it was up and running and it went crazy.
“We didn’t have room on the stall before and couldn’t go into each other’s houses so we hired the village hall to do the packaging.”
Mrs Abel said: “We did around 600 cakes in our first week and the packaging took hours as we weren’t used to it, but we got into a rhythm and it became second nature.”
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Now they have the expanded space, they will be able to bake on-site for both their stall customers and for online orders and can now open an extra day a week.
Mrs Abel added: “The customers love the new stall and like to see us baking and where all the products come from.”
The Cuppie Hut is open 11am until 4pm Tuesday to Saturday.
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