Contents:
- Editor's welcome
- Paul Waugh: From Rochdale to Westminster
- Rachel Winnard: One in Two Million
- Rochdale Sixth Form College wins at prestigious Further Education awards
- Rev Mark Coleman
- Baillie Street Quarter
- Touchstones reopens with new exhibitions
- Greater Manchester Fire Service Museum
- Highlights of a Mayoral Year
- Fancy dress posties raise £1,700 for MIND
- John Swinden’s Captain Tom 100 challenge
- Littleborough’s Tackling Minds to become first organisation to work with NHS in prescribing angling
- Keith Hicks retires after 33 years of service at RAFC
- Bid for local digital radio signal
- Carpet Creations celebrates 25 years in business
- Help fill Springhill’s gardens with sunflowers in memory of your loved ones
- Local author reminisces about Rochdale high streets in the 80s and 90s in new book
- After the storm, the healthy hazy days of summer
- Rochdale Heartbeat honoured with Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service
- Ian Jenkins: Forty Years of Making Music
- Hairdressing Trend - Babylights
- Lasting Power of Attorney
- Cupcakes recipe
- Brown’s Cakes celebrates 10 years »
- Beauty Feature: Coming back strong after lockdown
- Take a walk at Ealees
Summer 2021Brown’s Cakes celebrates 10 years
The multi-award winning Brown’s Cakes in Rochdale celebrated 10 years of business in January.
Instantly recognisable with its candy pink exterior, Brown’s, on St Mary’s Gate, specialises in hand-crafted wedding cakes, birthday cakes, christening cakes and celebration cakes.
Brown’s was started by Natasha Brown after a couple of years making cakes from home. Starting out on her own, she quickly realised she needed additional help, and she now employs six “fantastic” members of staff.
Natasha said: “We have a fantastic team, we all work well together and each member of staff brings different skills and qualities. “It’s such a shame that we’ve not been able to celebrate as we’d have liked to. Saying that though, there have been an awful lot of occasions people haven’t been able to celebrate in the past year. We will all have to make sure we celebrate well whenever we can in future."
Despite lockdown, Natasha and the team kicked off 2021in a positive manner by winning a prestigious accolade.
Their stunning entry of a ‘Secret Garden’ themed cake won them the title of Cake Celebration Business of the Year at the national Baking Industry Awards in January.
Natasha added: “We are delighted to receive this honour and love being able to put Rochdale on the map in a nationwide forum.”
She continued: “We’ve had a difficult year with the various lockdowns and as a non-essential shop we’ve been closed for these. When we have been open in between lockdowns, we’ve worked hard to create lovely takeaway afternoon teas.
“All the elements of our afternoon teas are handmade on site and they take days of preparation and numerous staff to create.
“It’s not been possible to continue with this level of attention to detail during lockdown, so we are waiting for more restrictions to be lifted so that we can continue with them again.
“We are all itching to get back to making celebration cakes, wedding cakes and afternoon teas for our loyal customers. I think 2021 is going to be a very busy year with everybody finally celebrating life events which have been on hold.
“Here’s to another ten years of Brown’s Cakes – and a future of joyful celebrations for one and all.”