About the bakery
Crumbs of Sandbach is a home-based bakery in Sandbach, Cheshire. We bake fresh cakes for weddings, birthdays, and family occasions. The bakery is small (one oven, one decorator, no industrial mixers) and we like it that way.
How it started
We started with a few friends-of-friends asking for birthday cakes. Word travelled around Sandbach, then to Crewe and the surrounding villages, and one of the first proper wedding cakes we made turned into a steady stream of wedding bookings. Eight years later, weddings make up roughly half of what we bake; birthdays and christenings make up most of the rest.
What we believe about cake
Three things, mostly:
- Fresh beats fancy. A simple sponge baked the day before, with proper buttercream made from real butter, beats a six-tier sculpted cake assembled from week-old frozen layers every time. We bake to order. Nothing is frozen.
- Allergens get taken seriously. We carry full allergen records for every recipe and we don't bake nut-cakes in batches with non-nut cakes. If you or a guest has a real allergy, tell us at the consultation stage — we'll plan around it, not work around it.
- The cake should taste of what it is. Lemon cake should taste of lemons. Chocolate cake should taste of cocoa, not generic sweetness. We don't use cake mix and we use proper extracts.
How we work
Every cake is consultation, design, deposit, bake, decorate, deliver. Most orders are placed 2–4 weeks ahead — wedding cakes need 6–12 weeks for the bigger pieces, mostly because we limit ourselves to one wedding per weekend so we can give each the attention it needs.
Decoration happens by hand. We work with fondant, buttercream, ganache, and royal icing depending on the design. Sugar flowers are made fresh; we don't use bought-in toppers unless the customer specifically wants them for a personal reason.
Who bakes
The bakery is run by a small team — primarily one head baker who does all the sponge work and most of the decoration, with help from a part-time decorator for the larger weekend wedding pieces. Everyone in the kitchen is Level 2 Food Safety qualified; the head baker holds a City & Guilds Patisserie qualification.
Where we deliver
Sandbach, Crewe, Holmes Chapel, Alsager, Middlewich, Congleton, Nantwich — the surrounding Cheshire towns. Further afield (Manchester, Stoke, Cheshire West) is doable for wedding cakes with delivery charged separately. Single-tier birthday cakes we'll deliver within about a 10-mile radius free; outside that you can collect from the bakery (by appointment).
Hygiene rating & insurance
Cheshire East EHO rating: 5 (current). Public and product liability insurance with a UK underwriter, available on request before any wedding booking is finalised.
Getting in touch
Email [email protected]. For wedding consultations we can usually find an evening slot within a fortnight; weekends are reserved for bake days and weddings themselves.