The Northern Tart

25/09/2026

BLOOD. DOOM. CAKE 🩸🫀
A few months back, Stanley Norwegian not-then-boyfriend Mike ordered her a Mayhem cake for her birthday.
Fast forward a few months, they decided to unite forces and now they’re actually together. I’m not saying the cake had anything to do with it… but maybe there’s a special ingredient I’ve not been declaring 👀
So when 𝕶𝖑𝖚𝖋𝖋𝖜𝖞𝖗𝖒 (Mike's) birthday rolled around, Stanley wanted to return the favour and surprise him with something that was completely him.
This one was based around his instrumental sludge/doom project — dark, heavy, filthy and a little bit BLOODY. Exactly the sort of brief I like 😂
Black and white, metal-inspired artwork, an anatomical heart slapped on the front and, naturally, blood. Lots of blood.

Happy Birthday Mike 🖤

Maybe I need to start advertising cakes as a dating service at this point. 😂

24/09/2026

Be careful what you wish for… 🪡
I adore how visually weird and beautiful Coraline is, so there was A LOT I wanted to get onto this one.

Buttons, stars, dragonfly clip, the key, the tunnel on top and the creepy tree hand from the Coraline artwork climbing up the back — which I decided to make entirely out of chocolate, because apparently I don’t like an easy life.

All the pinks, blues, purples, yellows and little details pulled together for Emily’s 21st, while still keeping that slightly unsettling Coraline feel.

Definitely one of those cakes where there’s something different to look at from every angle. 🖤

Happy 21st, Emily!

21/09/2026

Looks like the words getting around 👀 publication number 2!
It's a bit weird seeing my mug everywhere at the moment, but I'm still so damn proud of how far I've come in a year! Thank you The Oldham Times for sharing my story and letting everyone know there's a spooky cake lady on the block 🤙🏻

Yes, it may have not been gruesome on the outside, but the recovery was definitely gross, 0 stars on trustpilot, do not recommend splitting your calf muscles.

Being stuck in the same 4 walls for two and a half months really helped me put what I wanted out of life into perspective, and that just happened to be turning everything I loved growing up into edible art, and giving the alternative community someone to go to for their celebrations to match their weird and wonderful love for their favourite films, music and franchises 🖤

If only bake off did a Halloween series... Could you imagine my idiocy on TV 🤣 Noel would be living.

This is Natalie Hoole, from Failsworth, whose gruesome dance injury inspired her to launch a horror-themed cake business. 🍰

After she tore two of the three muscles in her left calf during a Squid Game-themed dance with a cosplayer at HorrorCon UK, Natalie used her recovery time to launch The Northern Tart, a cake business inspired by horror and pop culture. 🥰👏👏

17/09/2026

WAIT! Is that ME in the news? 👀
The Northern Tart has only gone and made it in the local news! Seeing my little horror and pop culture baking business being recognised on home turf is pretty bloody surreal.

From making my first treat that somehow went viral in the horror community, and a year later seeing my growing business featured online... Not bad, eh?

I wonder where we will end up next?

A local woman who was left bed-bound after a Squid Game-themed dance went disastrously wrong has transformed the accident into an unlikely new career creating gruesome cakes and treats.

Self-taught baker Natalie Hoole tore two of the three muscles in her left calf while dancing with a cosplayer at HorrorCon UK.

Unable to walk properly for two and a half months, she used her recovery to build the foundations of The Northern Tart, her Failsworth-based horror and pop culture cake business.

Read more👇
https://www.notreallyheremedia.com/news/oldham-reporter/from-squid-game-dance-disaster-to-gruesome-cake-career/




Follow Oldham Reporter

14/09/2026

If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball 🔧

Getting to make some bakes from one of my favourite comedies as a teenager is always a good time, but this Dodgeball order absolutely finished me.

Out of every iconic moment Uana Tovar could’ve picked, she specifically asked for Justin Long bent over cleaning the truck and I was genuinely inconsolable when she sent me the picture. 😂
The fact I then had to sit there and turn it into an edible cake topper just made it about 100 times funnier.

Shame about the quality of these photos, really didn't do them justice 🙈

Dodgeball is still one of those films I can quote an unreasonable amount, so getting an order basically dedicated to some of its stupidest moments was f*cking RAD

Remember the 5 D's of dodgeball: Dodge, duck, dip, dive and..... dodge.

13/09/2026

⸸ What an excellent day for an exorcism ⸸

What’s your first memory of watching The Exorcist?

I still remember the first time I watched The Exorcist. I was 14, at a sleepover at my friend’s house, and we’d just got to that scene — Regan coming down the stairs bent backwards.
At that exact moment, my friend’s dad came home absolutely sh*t-faced, couldn’t get his key in the door and eventually came crashing through it.
We f*cking BOLTED to the back door 😂
Safe to say, The Exorcist has been firmly lodged in my brain ever since.

From William Peter Blatty’s original novel to Friedkin’s 1973 film, it’s one of those horror stories where the imagery is just burned into you. Regan, Father Merrin, that bedroom, those steps… horror fans know them instantly.

These coffin pops pull from across that history, using original movie stills, theatrical posters and the new book cover.