The Crafted Cake House Morley: Meet the sisters behind the award-winning Leeds cake shop

For the Leeds sisters behind the award-winning The Crafted Cake House in Morley, every day is different - from eyebrow-raising cake requests, to trying new flavours on their menu.

The Queen Street shop is a one-stop place for parties, selling everything from gifts and sweet cones to bespoke wedding cakes.

Natalie, 39, told the Yorkshire Evening Post: “We try to help customers through the whole process, from start to finish. People come in wanting a cake, but don’t realise how many questions we’ll ask them! Even down to the flavour; they can be shocked when we put the list in front of them.

“Coming into local businesses, you get that personal approach from the staff. There’s only two of us who work here so you’re always going to speak to one of us - and we know everything that’s going on.”

Natalie and Kim took over the existing cake shop in Queens Street in April 2021, realising a long-held dream of theirs. Natalie previously had a home-based cake business with her eldest sister Faye, while juggling a full-time job at Asda, and Kim ran a home-based craft business.

All three of the sisters learnt to bake from their late mum when they were kids and the shop came into fruition after their dad died, leaving behind some money which they poured into the business.

“They are the reason this whole thing started,” Natalie said. "It was terrifying. It’s totally different to having a home-based business. But we’d always talked about having it and it just felt like the right next step.

"We decided to take the plunge, leave work and do it full time. We offer cakes for all occasions - weddings, birthdays, or days when you just want cake.”

Born and raised in Tingley, the sisters love being part of the Morley community, where many of their family are still based.

“It’s our local town and it’s nice to go back to our roots,” Natalie added. “It’s brought all the family back together again.”

Just over a year after they opened, The Crafted Cake House was crowned Cake Designer of the Year at Britain’s Asian Wedding Awards 2022. The award was in recognition of Natalie and Kim’s innovative halal checklist for wedding cakes, as well as their creative approach to wedding cake design.

Natalie said: “It was amazing. We got nominated by one of our customers and we still have no idea who it was, but we’re so grateful to them. We didn’t expect to win in the slightest.

“I like to try and involve the whole community and we’re trying to expand to include even more options for different people. Really, I don’t see why we shouldn’t.”

“The hours you have to put in are challenging,” Natalie added. “We’re there most days, 12 hours at least. But we know we’re growing something, we’re building something that works for us.

“It’s the difference every day that I love. It may be another cake, but they’re always different. You never know who is going to walk through the door.”