AN amateur baker has turned his hobby of making cupcakes into a business.

Frank Laws set up the Nightingale Bakery in Sudbury, has always enjoyed baking, and would bring cupcakes into work for his colleagues to try when he lived in York.

Eventually he started receiving donations towards ingredients and decided it was time to make business out of his hobby.

“They started out very rustic and rough around the edges but the more I made the better they got,” he said.

“I thought about starting up the business in York but I didn’t really have any connections. So I decided to come back to Sudbury where I have all my family and I find the tea rooms in the countryside a good market to aim towards.”

He now runs Nightingale Bakery, a business which makes solely cupcakes, and does almost all the baking himself, although he admits his mum will help him from time to time.

He has focused on offering various sponge flavourings and different ways to decorate each cupcake, and has attended classes to learn the art of sugar craft and decorating with butter-cream.

He is hoping to break into the wedding market.

He has a regular stall at Sudbury farmers’ market on the last Friday of every month and has attended a vintage fair in Colchester.

“I think what makes my bakery special is the fact that I have lots to offer. I don’t stick to the basic flavours such as vanilla and chocolate. I also offer flavours such as red velvet, lemon and banoffee. I am happy to mix and match designs and flavours, and if a customer asks me to do something I haven’t done before I will look into it before giving them an alternative but I like to be honest about what I can and can’t do,” he said.