I'm very excited to see my cakes in the current edition of Cheshire Life magazine :) The quotes are not quite verbatim but the point gets across!

Dear Friends of Cake,

I am amending my 'opening hours', from 20th April 2013.

Some of you may not realise that I work full time in my 'day job', and bake cakes in my free time. I also have various other commitments, including a bit of volunteering, my beautiful rescue dog, and other bits & bobs.

Lately I'm afraid to say that my balance of all of these things has become very skewed! I would dearly love to bake the whole night through, and weekends as well, but it's not feasible right now.

Pending a Dragon's Den style injection of cash, I will remain OPEN FOR BUSINESS, but my hours will be as follows:

My kitchen will be 'open' on weekends ONLY. Therefore, cakes and bakes will be available to collect on Sunday and Monday ONLY. Saturday evening will be a possibility, by exception.

I would be grateful if customers do not request collection at any other time, as I will not be able to accept, and I hate to cause disappointment! If you are desperate, you can always contact me with your requirements and I can try to suggest an alternative.

Thank you all so much for your continued support - it is my dream that one day Cottage Cupcake Co. will be a full time venture, but that day has not yet come!

Much love,

Jenny xxx

The Northern Vegan Festival was a very strange day for me! I spent a long time baking and prepping for the event, which I'd been looking forward to for months. I was so excited to see a big vegan gathering like this in Manchester, and as my friend Andrea's tremendous article in The Skinny shows, veganism is definitely on the up in our fair city at the moment!

I was therefore absolutely devastated to wake up on Saturday morning feeling very unwell indeed. I soldiered through getting myself ready and my boyfriend and I managed to safely deliver me plus my stall to Sacha's, at which point I was horribly overcome by illness and realised very quickly that I was not going to last the morning, never mind the day!

At this point I must extend a million thank-yous to the wonderful friends & acquaintances who rallied round and staffed my stall for me all day! Richard, Ruth, Sarah, Ali, Vicki, Chellie and Rowan all bravely filled my market-tradin' boots and did a grand job of peddling my wares to all the 2500+ festival goers! My stall was mercifully situated next to the tremendously lovely V Revolution folks who also kept a weather eye on proceedings!

I was also devastated to have to abandon the heroic Amanda of Didsbury Dinners for whom I was meant to deliver a cooking demo later in the afternoon. Amanda and my glamorous fellow cookery champ Chellie did a grand job, so I heard, and the Mexican taco bowl feast went down well.

My biggest disappointment was not being able to meet all my lovely customers, and check in with all the other amazing exhibitors who had come from far & wide to my own home town to celebrate the joy of vegan. I'm already looking forward to next year's event, for which I absolutely forbid myself to be ill!

Since I spent the entire day feverishly tossing and turning in my bed (closely watched over by my wonderfully faithful cat and dog, I am happy to say) I am pleased to see the write-ups of the day slowly appearing, so I can get a better idea of what the festival was like! The lovely Jojo of Vegan in Brighton managed to get some great snaps of my stall, and we managed to briefly meet before I was overcome by illness! Thanks Jojo :)

I wanted to thank everyone who popped by and extend my apologies for not being there in person to meet you. There is plenty of time to remedy that! I know the event was very busy and queueing times were long, but the interest in and support for veganism in the North West warms my cockles beyond measure :)

I hope you all had a lovely day and I can't wait for next time! Thanks to the organisers for a fantastic event :)

Hello friends! Somehow my Facebook page reached 250 likes and I never even noticed, so I thought I would celebrate with a wee giveaway. Please share this competition with your friends on Facebook and Twitter!


Please note:

+ Entrants within Manchester! Choose one large layer cake of any flavour, and 12 brownies OR 12 cupcakes of one flavour. I will deliver to you at a mutually convenient time!

+ Entrants outside of Manchester! Choose 12 brownies of one flavour, and 12 cookies of two flavours. I will post them to you free of charge!

To celebrate National Vegetarian Week I will be offering a 25% discount on all purchases made between Monday 20th and Sunday 26th May! Make sure to mention the offer when you order :)

My vegan friends, I have tried to make my website a little more jolly and representative of cake joy! I hope you like the new look. I will continue to post my occasional updates here on the site.