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South Leeds: The rise and rise of an artisan Belle Isle cake baker
Donna Marsden.
For mum-of-two Donna Marsden, the decision to start her own business was a piece of cake.
Despite the economic doom and gloom, the 33-year-old launched her cake-baking and decorating operation, Donna Makes Cakes, as the rest of the country struggled to emerge from the recession.
And the former Royal Mail worker, who works out of her kitchen at home on Orion Walk in Belle Isle, has seen things go from strength to strength.
“I’m really happy with how it’s going, especially because I have started in the recession,” she said.
“I barely get a day off and I’ve got orders as far ahead as October.”
Donna, who has always lived in Belle Isle and showed a talent for art at school, started experimenting with cakes after ordering her husband, Alan, a cake for his birthday.
“I got it and I thought ‘I could do better than that’. It just went from there.”
She taught herself from books and made cakes for friends and family for free before starting out in business about two years ago, although she continued to work for Royal Mail until last September.
She bakes for all occasions, from children’s birthdays to weddings, charging from £45 for basic creations to several hundred pounds for her most elaborate.
Her orders have come from as far afield as London.
And she always has willing tasters on hand in the form of her boys Joe, 13, and Jack, nine. “They eat a lot of cake,” she said. “I don’t eat that much – when you spend your whole day baking it you lose your taste for it.”
Another business on hand to serve the Belle Isle community is Belle Isle Pharmacy on Middleton Road.
Owner Robert Sherman, who set the dispensary up about five years ago, said he took a traditional approach to his work.
“The idea is that we get to know our patients, rather than seeing them simply as people coming in to get medicine,” he said.
“I might own it, but the pharmacy belongs to the community. My motto has always been ‘nothing is too much trouble’.”
The pharmacy deals with a wide range of patients, from the elderly to methadone addicts.
But Mr Sherman added: “We treat everyone as an individual – there’s no stigma. We’re well used, but we could be used to a greater extent.”
A shop that is also appealing for more customers is the Belle Isle Winter Aid charity shop, New 2 You, on Belle Isle Parade.
The outlet is a haven for bargain-hunters – and regularly gets donations of designer clothes.
“All the money goes to supporting the work we do with older people,” said project manager Ian Campbell-McLean.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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