Our Story
My name is Rhiannon Woolsey and I am married to Gordon. We have 3 beautiful children, Ben (13) Hannah (11) and Jessica (8). I also have 2 sisters, Rebekah and Kerrie-Louise. I live in Scotch Street just outside Portadown.
I left further education at the age of 18 with a National Diploma in Business and started working with my Mum and Dad in their Coffee Shop 'Esthers' on the Armagh Road in Portadown. This is where I learnt how to bake and am so thankful for the opportunity to work in the family business. Something I will be forever grateful for.
I worked there for a number of years and then took time off to have my family.
A few years ago, as my children grew up, I started baking more from home, using this time to develop new skills, self-teach and attend various courses and generally improve recipes and also try out new things.
Over the last few years, I was receiving a lot more enquiries and bookings for all occasions. This is when I realised I had to make the decision to register as a small business and set up my various social media platforms.
I have been overwhelmed with the business and support from you, my customers and friends have given me as I continued to build my small business from home.
2020 began a new chapter in my baking journey. In June 2020, I gave up my part time job as a classroom assistant (which I loved!) to pursue my dream of baking full time. In Summer 2020, I purchased a fantastic cabin and in September 2020, it was now finally ready to be used. I moved over to my new cabin to begin this new exciting chapter!
I was so excited for this next step, from baking in my kitchen to now baking in a fully equipped catering kitchen next to my house is what I have always dreamed of and now it is a reality.
I was also delighted to receive my 5 star Food Hygiene Rating in September 2020.
Fast forward to 2021, as my Cakes and Cupcake orders continued to increase, more and more of my customers were asking for traybakes on a weekly basis, therefore we felt that it was the appropriate time to open up ‘The Cabin Shop’. We purchased a second hand portacabin in April 2021 and officially opened on Friday 2nd July 2021. Watch our video by clicking on the link below to see the progress from start to finish. Thank you to everyone who made it possible!
The Cabin Shop in Scotch Street is now open every Tuesday-Saturday from 9am-4pm (late night opening every Thursday to 7.30pm). Parking is available in the youth centre car park, directly behind Scotch Street Filling Station, 106 Moy Road, Portadown, Co. Armagh, BT62 1QP. The Cabin Shop offers a wide selection of homemade treats including: Scones, Soda Farls, Wheaten Bread to the array of freshly homemade traybakes and cupcakes which are becoming increasingly popular with our customers. Coffees, Tea, Luxury Hot Chocolate and other hot drinks are also available to buy from the Cabin Shop.
When opening The Cabin Shop, this meant a number of new staff had to be recruited in various roles including: Bakers, Shop Supervisors and Shop Assistants.
At the end of August 2021, the business continued to expand with a further addition of ‘The Recipe Room’, another space for my team and I to have additional space for our stock and also to create our homemade cakes and cupcakes, due to the ever expanding team.
As we continued to get busier, in January 2022, it was evident that we as a business had 2 options, 1 to continue as things are or 2, expand. We chose option 2, so in February 2022, the business expanded and opened its 2nd shop, on the Main Street in Moira, providing homemade cakes and bakes and hot drinks to this fantastic community and village.
Our Moira shop closed as of December 2023. (Pick up point still available 6 days per week from Moira).
Then, in August 2022, we opened our 3rd shop, this time, in Stranmillis, Belfast! This has been well received by all our Belfast based (and further afield) customers! We have seating for 6 inside (bar stools) and 4 outside (2 tables of 2). We absolutely love our shop and the decor and we hope you love it too! Why not call and visit our shop at 155 Stranmillis Road, Belfast, BT9 5AJ. We are open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday from 10am-8pm and Friday/Saturday from 10am-6pm.
In March 2023, we felt it time to expand once again, and so we signed 2 new leases for Portstewart (4th location) and Rushmere Shopping Centre, Craigavon (5th location)!
Our Portstewart shop closed as of December 2023.
In Rushmere, we are based at a Kiosk just through the main entrance doors of the Shopping Centre, we are so excited to be open in both of these fantastic locations and bringing you our treats to even more locations across Northern Ireland! We are open 7 days a week in Rushmere and open every hour the shopping centre itself is open! Our opening hours in Rushmere are Monday-Friday 9am-9pm, Saturday 9am-6pm and Sunday 1pm-6pm.
In June 2023, we opened in the sunny seaside town of Newcastle, Co. Down on the East Coast! We love this town due to childhood memories and were so excited to finally have opened our doors at end of June 2023. We are open 7 days a week, opening hours Monday-Sunday 10am-6pm!
We are also quite active on all our social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and more recently TIK TOK (@rhiannonscakesandbakes). Follow us on all our social media platforms for all the latest pictures and videos!
Who knows what’s next for Rhiannon’s Cakes and Bakes, all I know is I am thankful to each and every one of you, our amazing customers and also to my fantastic staff team (all 30+ of them!), who make this all possible.
I would also like to thank my family circle, my Mum and Dad, Sisters, Nanny Norma and especially my husband Gordon for supporting me and encouraging me to take the step into setting up my own business. I couldn't have done it without you all.
I couldn't have got to where I am today without my faith and I want to thank God for His faithfulness to me along this exciting journey! He has been so so good to us.
I hope you enjoy seeing all my daily posts of Cakes and Bakes uploaded on Facebook, Instagram and Tik Tok. I absolutely love what I do and I love making people happy and putting a smile on your and your loved ones faces through the Bakes that I create.
I would like to thank Sasha Treanor Photography so much for some of the professional photos she has taken of me and my sign and also a huge thank you to Milena Topolska for designing my logo and to Matthew Creighton for creating and designing my website which I absolutely love!
Thank you all so much again,
Rhiannon x