Sweet and Fair

23/04/2025

Thrilled to share some exciting news - I’ve been awarded a Food Hygiene Rating of 5!

It’s been a long time coming… Nearly five years since I registered my business, but with lockdown delays and two maternity leaves in between, the inspection only took place last week!

I'm so pleased to have achieved the highest rating possible as food safety and hygiene are so important, and I want you to feel confident and trust what you're buying. (Plus, I can finally start designing some flyers to advertise what we do and proudly display that 5!)

22/04/2025

Just a little reminder that we don’t only do sweet treats!
Today we delivered 240 sandwich slices for the funeral of one of the kindest, most caring people you could ever hope to meet. We had a special request for ham and pease pudding—her favourite—and they were the first to go. We’ll be adding those to our menu in her honour 🕊

21/04/2025

Chocolate cake for a birthday yesterday 🍫

20/04/2025

Check out this glowing review for Fog on the Tyne - they do a lovely roast, but make sure you leave room for one of our tasty treats when you visit, so you don't miss out like this reviewer did 😂

"while on arrival, our eyes were drawn to the dessert menu, including a very on trend for Easter, Malteser Bunny Rocky Road, by the time we'd somehow managed to clear our plates, there simply was no room at the inn for anything else!"

A Gateshead pub that had a change of look and change of name last year is having people flocking for its Sunday dinners

19/04/2025

Oops... I overegged it! I baked a little too much and now have this monster box of 24 Easter treats which needs to find a loving home, so I'm trying something new and raffling it off!

Tickets are £1 each, with 47 available in total, and you can buy as many as you like! To enter, just comment below with how many tickets you'd like. For a bit of added optional fun (because nobody likes compulsory fun!) you can pick a Mr Men character from the original 47 books, or a favourite number, to match each entry to. Otherwise, I'll pick one for you!

I will start taking payments once at least 30 tickets have been sold, and I will do the draw tomorrow (Easter Sunday!) We are based near Gateshead Stadium, so the winner must live within 5 miles for delivery, or be able to collect.

A runner up prize of a small treat box (4 treats) will also be randomly allocated to someone who likes and shares this post (no ticket needed for that one!).

Good luck!

11/04/2025

Cake group shots 📷

08/04/2025

Introducing our 8 signature cake flavours! We've worked hard on these and think we've got something here to suit everyone, but we're still happy to adapt our recipes to make sure it's perfect for you and your occasion!

- Biscoff
- Carrot and walnut 🥕
- Chocolate 🍫
- Lemon and blueberry 🍋🫐
- Raspberry and white chocolate
- Spiced apple and maple 🍏🍁
- Sticky toffee
- Vanilla

Let us know in the comments 👇 what flavour you'd go for, or visit our swanky new 'cakes' web page for more info about ordering! sweetandfair.co.uk/cakes

06/04/2025

Happy new tax year (to anyone affected by such things)!
Around this time last year, I shared a little plea asking for help to increase my profits—I was a few hundred pounds short of qualifying for government-funded childcare (aka free hours).

Thanks to you lovely lot, I had a flurry of orders, with many of you buying cakes and treats you probably didn’t need, just to support me, my business, and my little family. I mentioned in a story that I hit the target, but I never actually posted—so in case you missed it: we did it! Thank you to everyone who helped me get there!

It made a huge difference—not only reducing my childcare bill for the year, but also helping me stay eligible for free hours during maternity leave. If you’ve got two (or more) kids, you’ll know how precious a bit of solo time with your newborn is. I enjoyed maternity leave more than I imagined, and it was a relief not to worry about profits for a while.

With minimum wage rising again, I now need to make over £10k in profit to qualify (£10,158.72 to be exact—or around £850/month). But this year I’m feeling more confident, and so grateful to have such a kind and supportive customer base. Thank you!

The second picture is a small thank you gift I'll be taking for the nursery staff tomorrow 🎂

28/03/2025

Maternity leave is over, we're back in business, and here's something new for you! Get yourself down to this Mother's Day weekend to get your hands on some of our delicious traybakes. Choose from millionaire's shortbread, triple chocolate brownies or cinnamon raisin flapjacks 😋 Get yours before they're gone! 🏃‍♀️

04/03/2025

My little girl is 9 months old, and what a 9 months it's been! 🥰

I'm working hard behind the scenes, updating my menus and prices, ready for Sweet and Fair to be back in April! The website is totally not up to date yet, but feel free to enquire if you want to book something in. Please just bear in mind I may take longer to reply than usual!

05/04/2024

FLASH SALE!
Must be ordered tonight before I go to bed 🥱

- Box of 6 white chocolate and raspberry cupcakes £10
Six freshly baked cupcakes made with raspberries, white chocolate chunks and Madagascan vanilla. Available for collection or local delivery this weekend.

- Letterbox treats £10 (including P&P in the UK)
One slab of brownie and one slab of rocky road. Choose your favourite chocolate bar for each! Can be made without gluten. Order now to be made and posted next week.

And just a reminder, tonight is the last chance to order Afternoon Teas for April 13th, 20th or 27th! (And probably the rest of 2024 🤰)

04/04/2024

To save you a few clicks on the website, here's the afternoon tea menu for this month! Please message to order for 13th, 20th or 27th April. For collection from NE8 3JA or available for local delivery for a small fee

04/04/2024

Good news and bad news...

😔 The bad news is that I've made the difficult decision to cancel my pop-up afternoon tea event on 27th April. I'm sorry to let you down if you had booked or were planning to, but I'm afraid I just hadn't made enough ticket sales to make the event worthwhile, and time wasn't on my side! BUT, afternoon teas are still available to book for delivery or collection on 13th, 20th and 27th April - so please get in touch today if that's something you're interested in!

😊 The good news is that I've had an influx of orders since my last post about the costs of childcare, and I'm now less than £150 away from reaching my target! I'm overwhelmed by all your support, so thank you so much, and please keep those enquiries coming in! If I haven't reached my goal by tomorrow, expect a flash sale of cupcakes and letterbox treats!

02/04/2024

Help a mama out!

Did you know that in order to qualify for tax-free childcare and the new 15 hours of funded childcare for 2 year olds, both parents need to earn a minimum of £8668 per year in profit (not just income)? And that's about to go up to £9518 for the 24/25 tax year!

That might not sound like a lot to some, but for a self-employed mum who runs her business part-time, it's not easy to maintain a steady profit (see graphs 📈, if you like graphs!)... especially when your child can't actually go to nursery because they're ill, you can't work for weeks on end because of pregnancy sickness, you have big expenses that put you in the red, or you have the audacity to take time off for a holiday!

With only 3 days left in the tax year, I find myself a few hundred pounds short of reaching my target. So close, yet so far! 🫠 Making sure we qualify for those 15 funded hours of childcare per week for our toddler will make a huge difference to my morale and our pockets during my maternity leave. But I can't get there without some help!

I understand afternoon teas and homemade cakes are a luxury, but if you're in a position where you're considering placing an order this month, please take a look at my previous post ('Don't delay, book today!') for some ways you can support my business, and please get in touch to book before the 5th April deadline!

Thank you so much for all your support, enabling me to do what I love ❤️

(Old pic for attention! 📸)

01/04/2024

DON'T DELAY, BOOK TODAY!

A gentle reminder that I won't be taking new orders beyond 5th April, but I have plenty of availability throughout April, so please get those orders in ASAP!!

Whether it's a cake, afternoon tea, buffet or dessert table, please just send a message to enquire! And don't forget to book your tickets for our pop-up afternoon tea on 27th April! 🥰

31/03/2024

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter!

Here are 200 Easter bakes delivered to this morning ⛪️

- Carrot cakes 🥕
- Mini Eggs cookie bars 🍪
- Biscoff and white chocolate nests 🪹
- Smarties Eggs rocky road 🥚
- Chocolate brownies 🍫
- Vanilla cupcakes 🧁
- Iced lemon biscuits 🐥

29/03/2024

Purple space-themed cake from last weekend 🌌 🪐

27/03/2024

Here's a little throwback to my pastry chef days in the Jesmond Dene House kitchen to let you all know I'm now hosting my very own Afternoon Tea event!

Join us for an afternoon tea to remember on
⭐️Saturday 27th April, 1-2-30pm, at Bensham Grove⭐️
as we celebrate one last hurrah before I go on maternity leave!

The afternoon tea menu will include an array of homemade sandwiches, savoury pastries, scones and sweet treats, including some favourites from the past four years and some new additions (plus plenty of tea and coffee). It will be held in the beautiful and historical setting of Bensham Grove, and served buffet style so you can choose all your favourites, and eat as much as you like until it's all gone!

Early bird tickets (available until 5th April): £20pp
Full price tickets: £25pp

Please message the page to book a table, letting us know any dietary requirements or if there are any under 18s in your party.