Kinder Nutella brookies, white chocolate and caramel cookie pies and cookies stuffed to the gunnels with every confectionery imaginable. It’s enough to make your mouth salivate.
And that’s exactly what those queuing to get their hands on Eve Smith’s goodies on Saturday morning will be doing.
Known as Fat Batch on Instagram, Eve’s following of 4K has grown to more than 12.5K since we last spoke about her hobby home-based baking business over a year ago.
That business is now set to open its first bricks and mortar on Elmbank Terrace in Aberdeen at 10am this Saturday.
But she won’t be alone when she launches her first premises.
First shop
Throughout the pandemic Eve ran her business from her boyfriend, Michael Deans’, home and he has now decided to join her in her venture. After all, he did come up with the name for the business, confesses Eve.
At 25, she is another young budding entrepreneur to hit the Aberdeen food scene, and her green shopfront will certainly stop people in their tracks.
It was after selling out continuously within hours at events and seeing the increased demand for her bakes that spurred her to get her own takeaway venue.
“It was exactly what we needed. We’ve grown really quickly with wholesale customers and it was far too much really,” said Eve.
“Working, baking and living in the same space is just not ideal, so moving in here has been great.
“I got the keys at the end of March and my dad (Bob Smith) has been working on it since April. He’s taken holidays and worked weekends to get it done – and, he’s saved us lots of money.”
Open from Wednesday to Sunday, Eve will be busy baking in the back while Michael, who has a decade of barista and hospitality experience, will be serving up coffees for customers to take away.
The couple have been together for three years and both agree that working together will be very easy.
What’s on offer at Fat Batch?
While there will be no tables or chairs in the premises, there will be a window seat with cushions where customers can sit and wait for their drinks to be made. A bench with tall chairs will be added at a later date.
As well as coffees, soft drinks and iced lattes will be available, and Eve hopes to launch her own version of Starbucks-inspired iced drinks in the future.
Offering just brookies, cookie pies and cookies, Eve sticks to what she knows best and has used social media to showcase her mouthwatering bakes.
“With the power of social media we’ve really been able to build the brand and name. Anyone can do a brookie or cookie, but the way you market it and promote it, I feel we’ve nailed that,” she said.
“Other local businesses have been really supportive in sharing my bakes online, and people who didn’t know about us were finding us at events and then posting on social media where all their friends could see.”
One woman and hundreds of bakes every week
Eve will be kept busy servicing her own shop and also her north-east wholesale clients who include Aberdam, Greyhope Bay, Refillosophy, Wander and Graze, The Craftsman Company and Bare.
She is expecting to potentially have to make hundreds, possibly thousands, of bakes per week.
“Wholesale is a big chunk of my income and I’ve really enjoyed working with lots of businesses.
“It is going to be a lot of work supplying the shop and wholesale, so we’ll maybe look at hiring someone. For now, though, the aim is to do it myself.
“Aberdam take 100 roughly of each product per week. So that’s 100 cookies, 100 brookies and 100 cookie pies. That’s one customer.
“It might even get into the thousands I am making every week.”
Eve is hoping to launch UK-wide postal orders to get her bakes in the hands of fans across the country once she has settled into her new premises.
The prices of her products in the shop are £3.60 for cookie pies, £3 for cookies £3 and £3.60 for brookiesm and Fat Batch will be open Wednesday 8am to 5pm, Thursday and Friday until 8pm, Saturday 9am to 4pm and Sunday 9am to 3pm.
The venue is dog-friendly and Eve’s fox red labrador, Bodie, has his face on the stickers for the cups and packaging.
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