Cakes hit the sweet spot at Shawbury's newest bakery

Avenue Bakes was created three and a half years ago from Charlotte Davies kitchen.

Now, the 27 year-old has opened up her own bakery on Drayton Road in Shawbury to offer locals a taste of the sweet life.

Queues reached down the road when she opened up for the first time on Saturday, and she even ran out of stock half way through the day.

"I have been running the business from home for the past three and a half years," she said. "So I have dealt with the customer side of things for a long time.

"I made as much stock as I usually would sell in a whole weekend. We opened at 10am and we were almost running out by 12.30pm, I had to turn the oven back on and quickly make some extra stock. It was absolute madness.

"The shock of the day didn't fully hit me until everyone had left and we were cleaning up, I couldn't believe what I had actually achieved."

Charlotte had run out of space in her kitchen at home and felt she was ready to expand her business. So she tidied up the building on Drayton Road in around five weeks, and managed to open with only a few minor setbacks – something she said was bound to happen during the current climate.

"I am really proud of everything I have managed to do, especially during this time," she said. "We said we were going to open at 10am and we had a queue from where my shop is to four shops down the street.

"Our till system went down first thing so I thought I'd pop my head out to tell people we were dealing with it, and expected maybe two or three people, but I couldn't believe the size of the queue. We sold out of everything at 3pm and I was meant to be open until 4pm.

"I am a small business so to see that support from people is just great. I get a lot of my stock from other small businesses and hope to partner with more. Everything has just been so worth it."

The shop will be open Tuesday to Saturday each week. Visit https://avenuebakesofshropshire.co.uk/ for more information.