A KINGSLEY couple are having their cake and eating it after celebrating the successful opening of their own cheesecake shop.
After years of serving pints in local pubs and selling their speciality cakes at freezing cold farmer’s market stalls, husband and wife team Jemma and Gary Wiffin are hoping to transform the humble cheesecake into a luxury Cheshire brand.
Since before the new owners even decorated the brightly coloured shop at Lady Heyes in Frodsham, staff at Cheshire Cheesecakes have been inundated with orders for their speciality local desserts.
And over the Christmas period, the new business was so overwhelmed that the couple had to take over the kitchen of the Red Bull Pub in Kingsley, where they have been staying, in order to craft the stream of requests for their mulled wine and mince pie cheesecakes, before being forced to stop receiving orders altogether.
Parents to Chloe, six, and Joshua, three, the former landlords spent years travelling all over the country tasting cakes and sourcing ingredients to perfect the ideal recipe for their unique and creamy cheesecakes.
Gary, 29, who has worked as a chef in dozens of pubs and restaurants across the country, said that the idea for the business was first dreamed up on a trip to Australia more than a decade ago.
“About 10 years ago me and Jemma went travelling in Australia and we were just blown away by how much they loved cheesecake there,” said Gary, who crafts and designs all the cakes by hand in the small cake kitchen.
“There were just cheesecake shops everywhere. And as we drove around the country we jokingly said that we should open one in Cheshire, it was just a pipe dream at the time, we never dreamed we would be standing in our own shop now.”
When they returned home the couple designed some of their own cakes and took them along to a wedding fair at The Forest Hills Hotel – the response was so good that they never looked back, travelling around the region to markets, weddings, restaurants and parties to sell their popular celebration desserts.
Now, more than a decade later, the couple are hoping to shift the region’s opinion on the cheesecake, by transforming it from the bland, crumbly supermarket offerings into 26 different beautiful looking quality desserts which could challenge even the most extravagant wedding cake.
“We are doing something completely different and trying to make the cheesecake a luxury item which everyone can enjoy at any time.
“Everywhere you go all over the world every region has its own cheesecake, but there are not really specialist cheesecake shops or cafes in this country.
“We really want to change the image of the cheesecake and make it into a thing of luxury and beauty, and with the support network in Cheshire for local businesses and how much we love Frodsham this seemed like the ideal place to set up our first shop.”
And the pair, helped at the shop by friend and business partner Paula Haynes, of Kingsley and shop front worker Nikki Slater, the dream doesn’t stop with one small cake shop.
“In the future perhaps we could open a couple of shops around Cheshire and open a cafe and shop in Chester, where people can come in, sit down and relax and enjoy a piece of cake. Who knows we are just overwhelmed with the support right now,” said Gary.
Cheshire Cheesecakes can be found at Lady Heyes, Frodsham. To find out more, visit cheshirecheesecakes.co.uk.
