Emma Smith, from West Moors, first fell in love with baking in September of 2025 after she made her partner a birthday cake.
Following this, she began making cakes for family and friends and started to receive ‘really positive’ feedback.
Emma Smith (Image: Submitted)
After making cupcakes and cookies for a nursery and barbers in the area, her confidence began to grow.
She said: “I’d noticed West Moors didn’t have a self serve cake shed so I made a poll asking if anyone would be interested and posted on the West Moors community groups.
“Over 80 people responded to me saying that they would love this and that was the start of Sweet Crumbs Cake Shed.”
The cake shed first opened on April 3 and is located outside 117 Pinehurst Road.
Community cake shed in West Moors (Image: Submitted)
Emma added: “West Moors is such a welcoming and friendly community and such a lovely place to have a family, and its feels really nice to be able to do something that the local community seems to be really enjoying.”
Emma bakes a range of treats, from brownies, cookies and cupcakes to carrot cake, mini cake loafs and school cakes.
In addition to this, she has a ‘requested bake of the week’, which resulted in Emma baking her first ever Dorset apple cake and traditional bread pudding.
I try to cater to everyone so I bake vegan, dairy free and gluten free options.
The shed is stocked up with goods on Friday mornings at 8am and guests can either pay in cash or use the QR code to pay by card.
All money and baked goods are removed from the shed at the end of the day and resulting on stock, it sometimes reopens on Saturdays.
The shed does have CCTV in, but the whole process is generally run on trust and honesty.
Emma added: “There has been no problems. In fact when totalling up sales people have generously overpaid, which made me quite emotional and is really appreciated as I know how difficult it is for people economically at this time.
“I have been blown away by the response to the shed.”
The first week saw the treats sell out and on the second week, only 10 bakes were left out of the 140 made.
Emma said that her followers grew from 50 to more than 600 in just four weeks, adding that she’s ‘truly so grateful’ for the support.
She also does bespoke made to order cakes, having just booked her first two weddings.
In the summer months, Emma is planning on opening a cake fridge alongside the shed to keep treats cool.
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