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Read MoreMegan’s Baking Heaven
When it comes to spreading happiness, most of us know that there are few things as effective as cake. Usually, however, it is eating cake rather than making it that is the best part. But for Megan Ellis, her love of baking has become an inspirational tale of how determination and a hobby can become a life-changing business.
It all started when Megan, who is 15, was asked to make cupcakes for an art exhibition open evening. The response to Megan’s (and her two friends Rachel, 18, and Courtney, 16) baking was so great that they began baking for more events.
Within a few short months Megan’s Baking Heaven became a fully fledged social venture, and Megan received two Live UnLtd Awards to help cover the costs of food hygiene training, insurance, and marketing.
“Megan just drove it forward in an amazing way,” says her proud mum, Rachael. “The business serves as a platform for the girls to form relationships with people they’d not normally come into contact with from the community.”
The three budding bakers use the professional kitchen at Tideswell School of Food, a social venture in the Peak District,
Photo credit: Clare & Dave (CC License)
The (raspberry) ripple effect
Megan’s Baking Heaven regularly sell between 150 and 250 cupcakes at events, and any profit made is reinvested into kitchen time, training and providing young people with an opportunity they wouldn’t otherwise have.
Megan and her colleagues were recently asked to provide cakes for morning coffee at a disability conference in Manchester Metropolitan University.
The girls have also been asked to run a cupcake making course for young people with a learning disablility funded by Mencap’s Inspire Me programme which challenges the negative stereotypes around learning disabilities.
A group of surgeons have enjoyed their cakes at a conference, footballers have celebrated their wins with their cakes at their annual presentation, birthdays parties have included their cakes, an open air swimming pool was opened with a range of their cakes and, best of all, a couple have asked the girls to make and serve cupcakes at their forthcoming wedding.
Photo credit: Tarale (CC License)
“The last six months have been amazing,” says Megan’s mum. “There’s been a real ripple effect, as word spreads about Megan’s Baking Heaven proving that anything is possible when you follow your dreams.”
Main photo credit: Clever CupCakes (CC License)
