24/08/2026
BELLE’S BAKERY IS 8!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉
Take a look back over our milestone moments over the last 8 years… ➡️➡️➡️
2018 - The Beginning 🎂
In July 2018, I left my full-time job and, just weeks later, picked up the keys to an existing bakery around the corner from where I grew up. With little time or money to renovate, my friends and family helped clean and paint the shop over one weekend while I finished my cake orders - and just five days later, Belle’s Bakery opened its doors!
2019 - Growing Fast 👩🍳
The cake side of the business quickly took off, with orders pouring in and long hours becoming the norm. By 2019, the workload had grown so much that I took on my first full-time cake decorator - the beginning of Team Belle’s.
2020 - The Year Everything Changed 🦠
Then COVID hit. We had signed up to Deliveroo just weeks before the pandemic reached the UK, which quickly became a huge lifeline for the business. We also launched our own local delivery service, taking essentials and treats to residents - particularly the elderly and vulnerable who were unable to leave their homes.
Thankfully, Belle’s was one of the businesses that boomed during the pandemic. Being based in a residential area opposite a park, we were able to remain open and regularly had queues out the door. Our incredible team worked long hours, seven days a week, to keep up with demand.
2021 - More Than Just Cakes 🥖
2021 was a year of growth and expansion. Belle’s was becoming so much more than a celebration cake business, and we began expanding our bakery range with fresh breads, brownies, doughnuts, cookies and so much more.
2022 - An Established Bakery 🩷
By 2022, Belle’s had become an established independent bakery with a loyal customer base and a growing team of more than 10 employees. What had started as a dream was becoming a thriving local business.
2023 - Community & Events 🎪
In 2023, we brought Belle’s back out into the community, attending and creating events across the local area. From Bexleyheath Night Market, Thamesmead Festival and Welling Sparkle to launching our own Belle’s Lates evenings and Christmas on the Parade - we loved creating experiences for our local community to enjoy.
2024 - Award-Winning 🏆
In 2024, Belle’s Bakery won the Best Independent Business Award at the Bexley Business Awards. A huge milestone for me and Team Belle’s, and such a proud moment to have our hard work recognised by the community we’ve worked so hard to become part of.
2025 - 10 Years of Belle’s Bakes! 🎉
2025 marked 10 years since I first started Belle’s Bakes. After losing my Nan, I had my very own “YOLO” moment and decided to finally follow a dream I’d had for years.
Having worked in a bakery from 17–21 and loved every minute of it, I combined that passion with my love of baking and started my own business from my parents’ kitchen — working evenings and weekends around my full-time job.
I taught myself the latest cake trends, began making celebration cakes for real customers rather than just friends and family, and started attending markets with a little pop-up stall to build my customer base and product range.
Ten years on, I’m incredibly proud of how far that little idea has come. 🩷
2026 - A New Chapter 👶🏼
2026 brought a personal milestone I’d spent years putting to the side - becoming a mum.
For so long, Belle’s Bakery was my first baby. I poured everything into building the business, and for years I wondered whether I’d ever be able to step back and have a family life alongside it.
But here we are. After years of hard work, Belle’s has a strong customer base, an incredible team and a business that can finally run without me doing absolutely everything. I’ve been able to take a step back (kind of!) and enjoy being a mum and a business owner - something I wasn’t sure would ever be possible.
The biggest thanks goes to all of you guys reading this post!
Thank you for being our biggest supports… trying our products, ordering your cakes from us, having your lunch from us, recommending us, promoting us, and so much more!!
Team Belle’s & I are forever grateful for the support of this small business ✌🏻💕
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