Project aim
Peace of Cake London is an award-winning Artisan Bakery offering exciting freshly baked, Glutenfree, Dairyfree and Soyafree Cakes and Bakes.
Peace Of Cake London is that amazing find, you can’t stop coming back to. In fact, we’ve been creating delicious award winning free from cakes and bakes since 2010.
Why we need your help
We’ve recently been granted planning permission to build a substantially larger kitchen, and we’d like to move forward with this in 2016. This will allow us to grow our brand and product range and also hire some staff to help reach more of you. We will largely be funding our project with a combination of personal savings, and a business loan, but in order to complete the build and kit it out with the specialist equipment required we need a little bit extra, and that’s where you come in!
If we reach our £30,000 target we’ll be able to complete the kitchen and be fully operational by the end of 2016.
Our business plans don’t stop there! We have added some stretch goals below to encourage you to help us go that bit further.
Pitch to Rich
Virgin Media Business have introduced Pitch to Rich, an initiative that will give us the chance to pitch our business idea to a panel of judges including Richard Branson.
Virgin Media Business want to help us get to where we want to be (hopefully), by helping us take the all imporant growth step between where we are and where we want to be! This will allow our business to VOOM!!
If we Pitch to Rich we could be one of nine winners across three categories, sharing a £1 million prize fund and also be rewarded with the unparalleled mentoring needed to make things happen. There will also be a People’s Choice award for the semi-finalist with the most public votes.
Our Story
I guess the reason we are here is we need your help! So here’s a little about how and why we started this business.
For many years I worked as the Finance Manager for one of the country’s favourite retailers, but I was diagnosed as being gluten intolerant, and suffering from Coeliac Disease. Later I also developed an intolerance to lactose and dairy. If you’d like to hear me talking about what it means to suffer with a food allergy and Coeliac Disease check out this Video from the Food Standards Agency.
Trying to juggle a busy professional and family life, and being the happy working mother of two, I turned to the well-known supermarkets seeking alternative cakes and biscuits to suit my new dietary needs. However, I found myself feeling rather disappointed at the products on offer.
Even if I could find something that looked good, it would never taste as good, and served as a constant reminder of my need to adhere to this restricted diet. In fact I had even more trouble when it came to special occasions as the selection became very limited, and I struggled to find anyone that could make a bespoke celebration cake.
Having baked for my kids when they were small, they urged me to get back in the kitchen and soon after Peace Of Cake London was born!
We have been around since 2010, successfully developing over 20 delicious award-winning freeform treats. Our products have been available in the Selfridges Food Hall and independent coffee shops in London for the past 4 years but without thecash to grow and market our products we haven’t been able to expand to meet the increasing demand for our products.
We also offer bespoke celebration cakes, wedding cakes and cupcakes which are available online through our website (www.peaceofcakelondon.com) and aim to make free from baking not just an acceptable alternative but something amazing that everyone wants to try!
We recently took part in a film from the Food Standards Agency to highlight the importance of businesses being 14 allergen compliant – basically it means making sure customers know which of the 14 Allergens are contained in each product. As a Coeliac sufferer and lactose intolerant customer myself I recognise the importance and really appreciate when I can safely choose something from the menu! You can take a look at the video here.
Reasons to believe
All the products we have entered in competitions have received some sort of award. Many have been awarded stars from theGreat Taste Awards, described as the “Oscars” of the food world. Our products have also been shortlisted and carry commendations from the annual Free From Food awards.
Our teatime range has been available in the Selfridges Food Hall on Oxford Street for over 4 years. We are available in several independent coffee shops across London and our scones are served for afternoon tea at a number of high-end luxury hotels such as The Savoy and The Connaught.
As a specialist free from producer we already have a very loyal client base that continues to grow with a high return-client rate. We also cater for a growing number of clients withmultiple-food sensitivities who can’t find anything suitable in the market. We are one of the few providers that also offer bespoke free from celebration cakes, cupcakes and wedding cakes, working both with individual clients and hotel/private member concierge services.
Although many chains are starting to expand their gluten-free offerings they are often prepared in a gluten-rich environment where there’s a risk of cross contamination. All our products are regularly tested and we are listed in the official Coeliac UK Directory.
Our business goals:
- If we make it to £30,000 we will have the extra capital required to build our new kitchen, kit it out with the required specialist equipment and be fully operational by the end of Autumn 2016.
- If we make it to £50,000 we will have the scope to develop a range of snack size products based on our popular award-winning teatime range and market it to as many retail outlets as possible.
- If we get to £60,000 we will publish a cookbook complete with mouth-watering photos of some of our most popular treats so you can learn how to make them at home.
Risks and challenges
Luckily for everyone supporting us the risks are minimal. As we will have our existing fully operational kitchen all be it rather small, the only risk would be the time it takes us to get your orders fulfilled.