The ribbon has officially been cut to open a new cake shop in Sneinton Dale. Nottinghamshire Live reported Cake Box opened a few weeks ago but a special ribbon cutting event took place on Wednesday (September 7).
Staff explained the new shop, which has become opening number 200 across the UK, was one of the first branches to open within a built up residential area rather than in a city centre.
This is because they hope it will attract people who live nearby. Sukh Chamdal, chief executive of Cake Box, who cut the ribbon, said: "We want to be in the local community rather than a shopping centre where we can feel disconnected from people. We want to be able to give people their birthday or celebration cakes on demand, whenever they want so they can come here to get their cakes."
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Cake Box offers a range of fresh cream cakes including classic options like red velvet and Victoria sponge. They also customise cakes and provide a range of cupcakes and ice cream. Customers can buy whole cakes or slices, if they fancy a smaller sweet treat for just £4.
Sukh Chamdal also said there was a possibility of more Cake Box stores opening in the coming months. "We already have another branch on the other side of Nottingham but we found we weren't representing everyone. So rather than then people driving nine miles to get to the store, we decided to open in this area. It provides an excellent area for employment, too," he said.
There are lots of different options on display in the store for customers to choose from. Each of the cakes is made without eggs which makes Cake Box a great choice for anyone with allergies.
"We do fresh cakes on demand which are eggless too. We find by removing that one ingredient, we can cater to the whole community. It's also, by default, halal as we don't use any meat products in it. We find that a lot of people are allergic to eggs so we have a very high allergy rate in this country," Sukh said.
He added: "We are grateful to the community for supporting us which is why we are having our official opening now. It's our 200th opening and we are hoping to expand more across the country. We are available from Plymouth all the way up to Glasgow."
The manager of the store, Vikas Sangwan, says the reaction from the local community has been great. Cake Box has donated cakes to the local Mosque which is across the road and charities in the surrounding areas. The shop had a soft opening where it traded for a few weeks prior to the official launch.
"We are very happy to be here and our CEO has really supported us. It was his idea to move into the community side which is what we have done. At first, I was nervous but people have been really nice to us and people have been praying for us to do well. It doesn't matter what community people are from, everyone is welcome and they've been really supportive," Vikas said.
When it comes to favourite cakes, perhaps unsurprisingly, Nottingham has a clear winner: forest fruits. "Forest fruits is a favourite with our customers as it's got fresh cream and fruit. The Black Forest cake is another favourite, too," Vikas said.
The Sneinton and Radford Road locations won't be the only Cake Box stores in the city for long, though. There are plans to expand the business into other areas of Nottingham. Sukh said: "We are hoping to have another store in Nottingham because I believe it's big enough here to support another store possibly in the surrounding area. We look at all the merits of where the demand comes from and we have all sorts of feedback before we open in a particular area. We will continue our march to conquer the whole of the UK."
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