Northumberland business is icing on the cake

Mar 15 2010 by Iain Laing, The Journal

A NORTHUMBERLAND woman with a passion for baking has turned up the gas and started her own business making and selling high-quality handmade cakes.

Kim Gladwin from Bedlington has been interested in cooking and food craft for more than 30 years and recently left her family-run entertainments agency business so that her son could carry on in her place.

This move prompted her to pursue her dream of making and selling her cakes on a full-time basis.

Kim’s new business Love Cake makes top-of-the-range products for weddings, anniversaries, parties and one-off special gifts. Each cake is lovingly created by hand with natural ingredients.

Her ultimate aim is to find suitable premises where she and her friend Carol Scott can bake, distribute and sell the cakes from. In the meantime, she is rapidly building up a growing clientele after opening a fan page on Facebook and promoting her wares at the offices of Northern Rock in Gosforth, as well as at specialised wedding fairs.

“I put a tremendous amount of effort and love into each cake and that is where the business name Love Cake comes from,” said Kim. “I’ve just done a seven-tier cake for a wedding and that took a long time as every detail on it was handmade or hand-painted.”

Kim has received free business support from the Go Wansbeck Enterprise Team. Coach Shirley Wilson was delighted to have been able to help.

She said: “I’m glad that we’ve been able to help with practical support to make this possible for Kim and I would urge anyone else in the Wansbeck area thinking of starting a business to contact us.”