The owner of Aberdeen bakery Sugar Skulls & Cream has overcome a shocking surprise to finally open the doors of her first cafe.
Andrea Gabor was horrified to discover a delivery of display cabinets had been smashed in transit as she got ready for a planned launch of the West End store last week.
The cabinets were supposed to hold some of the brownies, brookies, cakes and cookies that home baker Andrea has built a fearsome reputation for over the past three years from her Sugar Skulls & Cream website.
Undeterred, she quickly rescheduled the opening to this week and early Thursday morning welcomed the first customers to 269 Holburn Street.
And Andrea has already brushed off the opening “hiccups” and is focused on making a success of the Holburn Street shop.
“We still have a few that weren’t smashed,” Andrea says of the display cabinets, which were custom-made for the new shop.
Origins of Sugar Skull & Cream lie in children’s birthday party
The launch is a dream come true for the baker, who has run Sugar Skulls & Cream from her Potterton home since 2020.
Andrea, originally from Transylvania, started the online business after making a cake for her then-three-year-old daughter.
She made one for a friend, and suddenly the orders flooded in.
“I was like, what is going on?” she says. “I didn’t mean it to become anything. But then it did, and I quite enjoyed doing it.”
The unusual name for the business comes from a play on the sugar skulls made for Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebrations.
It means the business has a fantastic skull logo designed by one of Andrea’s friends.
“I love it so much,” Andrea says of the logo that now sits proudly on her shop sign. “It’s not just one of the ordinary ones and is so different from everything else.”
What can I buy at Sugar Skulls & Cream on Holburn Street?
The new shop will sell all of Andrea’s signature bakes along with cheesecake, small drip cakes and ready-made celebration cakes that can be bought on site.
“Then we’ll have a selection of different flavored brownies and blondies and cookies, and stuffed cookies and those big ones that nobody can ever finish,” she adds.
“And hopefully in the summer we will get a whipped ice-cream machine.”
Andrea also plans to make milkshakes and iced coffee – everything that Aberdeen needs for when the sun decides to reemerge.
And. as a mum, she is committed to making the shop a place where people can feel comfortable hanging out with their children.
“We’ll make sure that it’s a fun place for kids,” she says. “But adults can also enjoy a slice of goodness with some nice coffee or tea, or just whatever they like.”
Sugar Skulls & Cream is not the only cafe to open recently on Holburn Street. Turkish coffee shop Turquoise launched late last year.
