Alnwick teenager uses lockdown period to set-up new cheesecake business
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Bella Bell decided to turn her passion for baking into a business after leaving Duchess’s Community High School last spring.
The result was Cheesecake My Day which has proved such a hit that her kitchen has been turned into a production line.
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Hide Ad“I’ve always loved baking but I was just doing it for fun until last April,” said the 17-year-old.
"I started making cheesecakes and came up with the idea for making something more of it.”
Her mum, Sarah, helped with branding and packaging and the business was launched.
“On the first weekend I made 70 pots to deliver and it took off from there,” Bella recalled.
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Hide Ad"The orders were rolling in during that first lockdown. I think lots of people were enjoying their traybakes and desserts.”
She then started selling her cheesecakes at Wooler Farmers’ Market.
"They were really successful,” she said. “Every time I went they would sell out, even at the Christmas market when I thought it might be a little bit quieter.”
That platform has helped her grow the business’s social media presence and she is now taking regular orders via her Facebook and Instagram pages.
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Hide AdBusiness has been quieter since the new year but Bella is confident sales will pick up again as the weather improves.
She recently tried a well known store’s vanilla cheesecake and was taken aback by the difference.
"The difference between a processed cheesecake and my own is huge,” she said. "I don’t think people mind paying a little bit more for a homemade dessert.”
When Covid-19 restrictions ease, she hopes to sell her cheesecakes at more local markets.
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Hide Ad"I think that’s definitely an important way forward for me,” she said. “I can take 100 pots and be pretty sure that I’m going to sell them.”
Flavours include tangy lemon meringue, winter berry and her own personal favourite, biscoff.
Bella is also studying fashion, business and retail at Newcastle College.
“I’ve always wanted to do fashion and always wanted to go to university in London,” she revealed. “At first the business was like a hobby and I didn’t know what it was going to turn into but I still want to go to London – I might have to take my cheesecakes with me!”