Kent Bakery & Confectionary Product of the Year Winner: Salted Caramel Millionaires Shortbread by Macie Cakes

The business has evolved rapidly into a small popular online bakery, also attending monthly local markets. Before Macie Cakes I worked in the dairy industry as a cheesemonger, maturing and selling cheese at Borough Market.
I worked closely with cheese makers and dairy farms (hence our COW print logo!), so to use Kent's finest dairy products is really important to me. You can really taste the difference, Since the beginning, we have always strived to use local ingredients and local suppliers in every aspect of the business. In Kent, we really do have amazing products and producers and I'm very proud to be part of it. Our top bakes are drip cakes, cookie pies, fudgy brownies, cheesecakes, cupcakes and of course our salted caramel millionaires.

For generations my family have lived in Herne Bay, so the local community is really important to me. There's a lot of local business I use and we all know each other and support each other, it's really lovely to be a part of. From my branding to cake decorations, I try to use as many local businesses as I can. Not only does this strengthen our local economy, it reduces our carbon footprint and reduces the negative impact on the environment. I love the fact that when you are buying from Macie Cakes you aren't just supporting one local business, you are supporting several.

We exclusively only use Karly's Kitchen Jam in our cakes. Based in Margate, Karly makes an exciting range of seasonal preserves, all made by hand with locally-grown responsibly sourced and foraged finds from Kent.

When our customers order macaroons on their Macie Cakes celebration cakes, we use Eva from Lily's Macaroons based in Herne Bay. Eva handmakes all her macaroons from the finest ingredients.

If we need a custom-made wooden or acrylic sign or cake topper, we contact Sarah at Cut and Light Designs based in Herne Bay. Sarah also made my acrylic stalls.

When we need personalised fondant stamps made, we contact Olivia at The Cutter and Keepsake Shed based in Herne Bay. Olivia is so helpful and never afraid of going out of her comfort zone when we come to her with weird and wonderful ideas!

We have created a donut decorated cake, made using Halo donuts based in Canterbury. Megan makes all her fresh artisan-loaded donuts and we love putting them on our cakes for decorations.

We have also collaborated and shared a pop-up hut at Whitstable Harbour Market with Natalie from Sass-pots based in Faversham. Natalie is a macrame/plant pit designer.