St Helens cake shop's special 'giveaway celebrations'

Antonia’s Cakes, which won back-to-back Best of St Helens awards for its desserts in 2022 and 2023, has been operating since 2015.

Last year owner Lauren King relocated from Duke Street to new premises on Gerard’s Park, off College Street, in St Helens.

First birthday

This weekend marks the first birthday of the new shop.

To celebrate there'll be treats for the first 150 customers and a golden ticket giveaway.

There will also be 20 golden tickets hidden inside random boxes, with the chance to win brownies for a year, a VIP Card, five free treat boxes, five free dipping boxes and eight free boxes of cupcakes.

Speaking to the Star previously Lauren said "a much bigger bakery" and free parking outside were the big benefits of the relocation.

(Image: Antonia's Cakes)Lauren, 36, who was born and raised in St Helens, has always had a passion for art and design and has a degree in fashion and textiles.

Creativity

She was a young mum at 21 and being at home for a year, when her first baby was born, she started baking again – something she’d done as a child.

Lauren, who is mum to Esme and Elijah, said: “I’d done a lot of baking with my grandma when I was younger.

“I found that making cakes allowed me to do something creative and I started to apply things I had learned during my degree to designing cakes.

“Things just took off from there as I started to make cakes for friends and family.

“Word of mouth recommendations meant I started to pick up more business and I set up an Instagram page and website.

“We never expected to outgrow our home kitchen so quickly so opening a shop and then a larger bakery was a huge achievement for us.”

Lauren made and sold handmade clothing online during her time at college and university and worked freelance as a costume and wardrobe designer on sets while her son was still tiny.

She says she picked up her business acumen along the way.

The store is open on Saturday from 10.30am – 4pm