The Millstream – News from the Grindstone series - 05 EK BAKERY

The bricks and mortar retail site of EK BAKERY sits in Broadway Market Mews in Hackney, behind a cheerful canary yellow grill. This is the bakery of Elizabeth Kerr and her team of five. They have moved three times since 2017, starting out in her home kitchen selling brownies by post, onwards to a “dark, windowless kitchen” in a third-floor office building in Clerkenwell in 2020, to this bright spot in Hackney complete with counter for retail collection and production kitchen out back in 2023. 

Taking on the Hackney site was a decision Elizabeth took quickly. She viewed it in May 2023, put a deposit down in June, and by July 2023 she was in. Her predecessors, the Meringue Girls, had created a fully functioning kitchen set-up which allowed Elizabeth to move swiftly and complete the move and opening within a single week. Because her business had previously been operating with only online sales and collections, this meant less baggage and a faster set up, as much of what she needed was already provided. In terms of setting up a retail site and moving and opening a bakery, this has to be one of the fastest and most efficient transitions possible.  Every business owner was affected by Covid in some form. For Elizabeth, it resulted in a huge spike in her brownie postal delivery orders. The brownies come beautifully packaged in boxes designed to fit through your letterbox, and were an integral part of the business when it first opened (they still are). Over the last two years however, “postal has dropped off” compared to its lockdown peak, she notes, and been replaced with orders often for local offices or bespoke cakes, as the business landscape has changed following the lifting of lockdown. During the week, Elizabeth and her team work on products made to order for both post and collection including a large number of corporate clients and offices. For example, businesses ordering for International Women’s Day, or Valentine’s Day.

Now you can visit them in person at the shop on Saturdays and Sundays, or otherwise order online for collection or delivery during the week. The trade during the week is still the bulk of the business.  Elizabeth has always made cakes with seasonal floral decorations, and expanded the range over time to include cookies, cakes by the slice, savoury scones, banana bread and seasonal specials, as well as the custom orders for birthdays and celebrations. The current bestseller is her Earl Grey and yuzu cake. She buys yuzu juice in huge bottles which she transforms into curd. Seasonal flowers to decorate the cakes come from Aweside farm.

Given the business became renowned in part due to its chocolate brownies, I ask what her top tips are for making them. “There are two ways you can make chocolate brownies” Elizabeth explains, one is “melted butter and chocolate, whip eggs and sugar and make it super glossy, and add salt”. The other way to make it is where there is “no chocolate, you use all cocoa, which we find gives it a stronger chocolate flavour.” The cocoa powder method is the one they favour at EK BAKERY. They tested a wide range of cocoa powder before settling on a specific brand (which isn’t available in the retail market), but for those making it at home, Elizabeth recommends something like Green and Black’s cocoa powder for an easy to find variety. She uses our Shipton Mill organic soft cake and pastry flour, and our gluten-free all-purpose flour, for both cakes and brownies. 

In terms of getting started, Elizabeth reflects that she has always loved baking cakes, but growing up, had seen it as a hobby. She was “guided down a more academic route”, and didn’t think it would ever be possible to have an actual shop. While on course to train to become a teacher with a placement for the PGCE lined up, her then-boyfriend founded his own business. Seeing him creating his own business made her reconsider her options, and she arrived at the realisation she wanted to do the same. “Instagram made it more accessible to everyone – you could create a business [online] for very little money”. Around this time, she noted lots of people were founding food brands, such as Deliciously Ella, who provided further inspiration and proof it could be done. She deferred the PGCE place, “and that was 10 years ago now”, she reflects. 

Instagram, for all its positives and negatives, has been a part of the EK BAKERY brand growth, as Elizabeth has grown the following to nearly 95,000 as it currently stands. We discuss how when she last visited the Mill in 2022 her following was around the 5,000 mark. The increase in followers she ascribes to a response to her deciding to share more about herself as well as the business, including talking to the camera through reels and videos. “This does not come naturally to me. I was very reluctant to post about myself.” She “had to practice. It made a big impact – people really connect with a brand more, it builds a better [online] community” when you can see the founder or the people behind the business. Now, having grown the following significantly, Elizabeth feels less pressure to post unless it’s something she has time or wants to do. “I still enjoy Instagram” she says, and now “only posts when it works” for her, as it has to be balanced with the practicalities of running a business and being in the kitchen. However, she observes “posting more does have an impact on sales”. 

In terms of challenges the bakery faces, changes such as National Insurance increases mean all the prices that have been previously worked out have to be recalculated. Staff labour is “a high part of the cost” of the products, as “everything is handmade”. “I am also always surprised at how high the overheads are” she says. The bakery has grown carefully with Elizabeth managing each step so that she can retain control over the quality, the costs, and the size. Starting at home, with a Squarespace website and an Instagram page was the beginning. The move to Clerkenwell was made possible by an arrangement where Elizabeth managed the on-site office café in return for more affordable rent of the kitchen space. Finally, they were at a stage with the sales where she could justify the move to Broadway Market Mews and taking on more employees in the form of two baristas to work the weekends when they open the shop.

 Elizabeth is entirely self-taught with her recipes, but has worked alongside some “amazing professional chefs” who are part of her team, including Robyn, a trained pastry chef and Priya, who comes from a wholesale bakery background. The different team members over the years have helped her “get into an organised set-up”, for example, transferring all the recipes which “were in my head” and committing them to paper.

Now they have an incredible range of products, with a swiftly changing roster of seasonal specials - for example at present it’s Mother’s Day letterbox treats, Easter simnel cakes, St Patrick’s Day cakes and brownies. This ever-evolving range is testament to the efficiencies and organisation of the EK team recipe development. They manage monthly change-ups throughout the year to keep driving sales: “each month we release new flavours in line with what’s in season at that particular moment. The team spends weeks testing and developing new items”. This level of NPD and monthly ­­­­new additions is no mean feat, and the energy in the bakery is palpable. Robyn is checking a tray of brownies sprinkled with Easter themed bunny sprinkles (“we’re not sure if we’ll run this one yet”), and while we’re finishing our chat a couple arrive early for their wedding cake tasting session, where Elizabeth presents them with a tray full of cups, each containing a different carefully prepared type of cake.

I leave them with the tasting in full flow, and with a little more behind the scenes insight into the hard work and rigorous organisation that goes into running this bakery. You can find EK BAKERY on Broadway Market Mews, open on Saturdays and Sundays from 9am-3pm. To see their full range including cakes and brownies for delivery, or to find out more about them, you can find the website here.