George’s Bakery: From St Ives market stall to cult status

He sold his first slice of cake from a stall in St Ives less than a decade ago. Fast-forward to today and George Hepher, founder of George’s Bakery, has more than 600,000 followers on social media, a sell-out mail order service and a brand new cookbook, Rebel Bakes. Alice Ryan talks to him

Congratulations on your debut cookbook! How did it come about? And how does it feel to be in print?
Thank you! It was something I'd been dreaming of for a very long time and it manifested itself in summer 2022, followed by a lot of long nights working on it between running the bakery. I'm over the moon to have something non-edible for people to be able to get their hands on and for them to have a go at baking some of my recipes themselves.

What can bakers look forward to when they buy the book? Are you sharing secrets of your signatures, like the best-selling Bulge and Crevice??
There's a combination of signature bakes - yes, you can get your Bulge and Crevice cravings fulfilled from your own kitchen! - as well as new, exclusive recipes I've created for the book. I tried to think of every skill-set, taste, dietary requirements and occasion when writing, so have lots of tips for gluten-free baking, cakes that can be turned into celebration showstoppers and traybakes which can easily be shared with family and friends.

To rewind: remind us how and when your love of baking started?
So, not to dob my mum in, but she was a terrible cook when I was younger - luckily, I've taught her a bit better now. . . - so I was used to doing a lot of cooking from a young age and baking just happened to be more of a creative outlet for me. Some family friends bought me the Nigella Christmas Kitchen cookbook for Christmas and it became a sort of holy text to me - I still use it every year - because of how indulgent some of the recipes are. From there, I started making my own birthday cakes and baking every weekend.

When did baking go from hobby to job? How did George's Bakery start life?
After finishing Sixth Form I was busy taking a sabbatical from daily, human interaction, authoritative figures and my alarm clock, which lasted about a month before my mum, Lady Jayne, who was fed up with me lounging around, asked me to bake for a charity stall in her former shop. It was a success and I realised I could be keeping all of that money for myself, so managed to get myself into some local farmers’ markets in Ely and St Ives and started baking every week.

Your market stall soon started to sell out, didn't it, with people queuing around the block - and travelling across the country - to bag a box of your bakes! What's the secret of that success, do you think?
I think social media. It’s amazing at reaching people from all over the UK - and the world! I've been lucky to have built a large following across multiple social media platforms; being able to show off my unique creations whilst also being witty and drawing people in with my humour and day-to-day dramas at the bakery.

Your direct delivery boxes have taken off in a big way since the pandemic, haven't they? How many orders do you get in an average week?
Yes! We send them UK-wide; a few hundred on a slow week but into the thousands at Christmas, Easter and Georgeanuary - my own, personal birth-month celebration, where we come up with lots of new and exciting treats to kick off the new year.

The growth of your business has been incredible. What's the set-up now, in terms of site, staff, production levels?
I'm now in an industrial unit, but I like to keep things as small as possible and make the place feel like more of a home kitchen with industrial elements than a warehouse. By that I mean I have a TV in each kitchen to binge-watch shows all day! I have six extremely hardworking and talented staff who help to keep the place running. I've gone from selling 50 slices a week to a few thousand - it doesn't seem much of a difference now but looking back at my stalls from 2015 I'm gobsmacked.

And what's driven the continued growth, would you say? Your social media profile must have played a huge part? Your posts are always a highlight of our feed!
Social media is still the star of the show - I've got more than 110K Instagram followers, 110K on Facebook and over 400K on TikTok, but local word-of-mouth and customers who I get to see every couple of weeks, that have supported me for nearly 10 years now, is what got my business going in the first place and makes me realise how far I've come. Getting out of the kitchen once a week to catch up with people that are so excited to try the bakes and get their fix makes everything worth it.

We're guessing there have been both highs and lows along the way. What's been the toughest moment? And the best?
The toughest moment was probably near the end of 2021. After Covid catapulted my business, with the introduction of postal boxes alongside the market stall, I hadn't taken proper time off in months. Because I'm a stereotypical, hardworking Capricorn, I got completely burnt out from a build up of 120-hour-plus work weeks, though I'm fortunate to have kept so busy. My best moment was receiving my first copy of my book and seeing the culmination of all my hard work.

What makes George's Bakery stand out from the baking crowd? You have a unique style - and lots of unique-to-you recipes, too - don't you?
I try to come up with at least two new recipes every week; I don't want to make the same things every single week, just as customers want to try something new, too. It’s also about not being afraid to play around with flavours and styles of bakes. Who says you can't use a burger press to turn a boring old cornflake cake into a salted caramel cornflake sandwich?!

If a novice baker is reading this, which one recipe from the book should they start with?
The OG Cookie recipe is something I've shared before, but the tweaks in the new recipe in this book turn it up another level. Or, for something else familiar with people already, the Coffee & Walnut Cheesecake is absolutely incredible, foolproof, and you'd struggle not to finish the entire thing yourself in a couple of days.

If you could eat *any* of your bakes right here, right now, which one would it be?
Cherry Bakewell Cake is one of my all time favourites - I don't think I could look at a slice and not apply it straight to my face!

For local market dates and to order online go to georgesbakery.co.uk. Follow @georges_bakery on Instagram for inspiration and updates.

To find out more about George’s debut cookbook, Rebel Bakes – and to try two of his best-loved recipes – click HERE