A Riverside baker who set up a pink shed of treats in her front yard and trusted customers to pay has sold out every Saturday since opening three weeks ago, with a reception she said has blown her away.
Emma Swirsky, who has run cake decorating business Emmaculate Bakes for around five and a half years, wheels the shed out next to her letterbox in suburban Launceston each Saturday from 8am.
She fills it with goods baked during the week and customers pay by cash, QR code or PayID without anyone needing to staff it.
Swirsky said she had seen bake sheds from the UK and the US online and decided to “give it a go”.
“I really wasn’t sure how it would go, how it would be accepted,” she told Pulse.
The first Saturday sold out in two hours. She baked more the following week and sold out within an hour and last Saturday’s larger batch was gone by midday.
Swirsky said queues had stretched across her front yard and into the next, with around 30 to 40 people waiting at once.
Before opening, she wrote on social media: “I like to see the good in people and trust that they will do the right thing.”
She said no one had taken anything without paying.
“Everyone has been so honest,” she said.
Swirsky said she had spent more time at the shed than planned, restocking and chatting with customers.
“It’s kind of brought that community spirit back,” she said.
“When you’re working alone in a kitchen all day, you know, having like that interaction with people is just really lovely as well.”
The menu, which she posts on her social media (@emmaculate.bakes) includes chunky cookies, bronuts, cake tubs, cinnamon scrolls, rocky road and mini cookie dippers.
Videos of the shed have spread online and Swirsky said bakers from across Australia had contacted her for tips.
When an online commenter suggested she would upset her neighbours “but using not such polite words”, she said one neighbour replied “no, we love it” and many of them had joined the queue.
Swirsky still makes custom cakes and runs baking classes.
She is developing an online mentoring program for people starting their own baking business and has said she is considering a second drop later in the day.
