These delicious-looking bakes from Cake or Death are all vegan and yes, the brand is inspired by the famous Cake or Death sketch by Eddie Izzard.

Founder Katie Cross was fascinated by the goings-on in the kitchen at her step-grandmother’s B&B and was delighted when she taught Cross how to bake. She honed her skills and, by the age of 13, she was selling Irish tea loaf at the village market every Saturday.

The best piece of advice she was ever given? “Make sure your business is vegan, it’s the future,” she was told this in 2019, just before quitting her job. She tells Big Hospitality that it was her best business decision.  

The entrepreneur had a career in fundraising and development for a range of charities before quitting in January 2019 to open Cake or Death. It started as a wholesale vegan cake company in early 2019. After the popularity of Cake or Death’s brownies at a vegan market in London, Cross focused her energy on the secret recipe and developed several new flavours.

As with so many small businesses, the pandemic changed everything. Cross pivoted the business from wholesale to letterbox brownie boxes. The bakery moved from Dalston in East London to Exeter in summer 2021 where it now houses a shop front and continues to send bakes all across the country.

The letterbox brownies come in a variety of flavours including coffee bourbon, almond cherry bakewell, brookies (a cookie and brownie hybrid) and Nutella gluten-free brownies. The Cake or Death brownie club subscription service allows you to order six or ten brownies every two, four, six or 12 weeks.

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Now for a couple of businesses that we thought deserved honourable mentions. First up, Surelock Homes.

Paul Tribouillard started Surelock Homes in 2006 after locking himself out of his new home. He called a locksmith and it cost him over £400. Feeling ripped off, he wanted to do something about it. At the time he was setting up fire alarms and wanting to take his work in a different direction.

Growing up with his family in Portsmouth, it made sense to start the business there. It also helps that Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes, wrote his first two novels featuring the character while living in Portsmouth.

Surelock Homes covers a 30-mile radius and, following on from Tribouillard’s bad new-home experience, the company prides itself on low rates and fast call-out times with no call-out fee. It offers discounts for senior citizens, NHS staff, emergency services, disabled people and charities.

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Let’s start with the winner: Perky Blenders.

Now a coffee subscription service, Perky Blenders started as a humble little coffee cart outside St James’ Street station in London.

On top of their subscription service, the company has sit-in facilities at three London postcodes as well as selling personalised coffee and equipment. The coffee is stocked in various locations around London including Whole Foods and Fenwick department store.

Adam Cozens, managing director and co-founder of Perky Blenders, told Simply Business: “I came up with the idea for the name as the founding team planned our premium offering at the kitchen table in 2015. The Perky Blenders name was born from a need to get noticed with relevance to what we do. 

“The name Perky Blenders was clearly inspired by a popular TV show, however it has grown into so much more. As a well-known ‘coffee by post’ specialty coffee roaster, the name, and the company as a whole, now means much more to our Perky Family. Our roasting team is a talented mob, and our coffee is carefully sourced for quality and with good practice always at the front of mind.”

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Grout of this World is the runner-up of the competition. Owner Daryl has run the business for 16 years. Though he admits that the company name is thanks to his wife, Sheena, who put the word out for a company name and someone suggested Grout of this World which, just like the filler in question, stuck.

He says that many people have called him because of the name and nothing else. They can’t remember his name but they remember his company’s name.

The business has defied the odds by doing so well in the competition despite having no company website and very little social media presence to promote the brand.

“When we found out we had lost, we knew instantly that we had lost to a coffee business with an online business and I think they they’ve got 20,000 followers on Instagram, so we thought we were never really in it,” he told Suffolk News.

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Inflatable pub business, Air of the Dog, was created by Richard Martin from Gravesend in June 2020. His dad wanted a bevvy when all the pubs were shut during the height of the lockdown and suggested that his son Martin got an inflatable version.

He put it on Facebook and it “snowballed from there”. The new-found entrepreneur bought the inflatable pubs one after the other once the previous one was paid off. Clients include The Only Way is Essex and Love Island’s Dani Dyer.

“It feels amazing to have gone through all this with my business – from starting during a pandemic to now see how much we’ve grown during this time,” he told Kent Online.

“To anyone who wants to start a small business like us, my advice is to get the foundations in place, do something that you know. I’ve worked in bars before and I wanted to start my own business. So as long as you’ve got the knowledge and the support around you then go for it because it’s one of the best decisions that I’ve made.”

Air of the Dog offers dry hire and event bars, but they can source extras like kegs and customised signage, portaloos, disco lights and signage, pub benches, double fridge, a Slush Puppie machine, candy floss and a pick ‘n’ mix stand.

The pubs travel across the UK.

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Entrepreneur Laura Russell is Satisfashion’s personal shopper, personal stylist, fashion stylist, style consultant and the face of the brand.

Since establishing Satisfashion in 2006, Russell has been working across Edinburgh, The Lothians, Fife, Borders, Glasgow and Aberdeen, giving wardrobe clear-outs and makeovers to willing men and women.

A lover of all things fashion, Russell spent her youth trying on and styling clothes as well as styling her very well-dressed Barbies. She’s worked in fashion retail for her whole career from the shop floor to a fashion buyer for many well-known high street chains.

She wants to make Satisfashion a realistic service that is for all men and women who want to look great and feel confident, giving Satisfashion to the world one wardrobe at a time.

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A trip to a leather trade shop started it all for founder, Ann. It took over ten years of developing leather craft skills to nurture her passion into a business. Ann first developed her traditional hand-crafting skills in the Welsh Valleys being taught by her father and passed those skills onto her daughter, Kat (pictured). They’ve combined their passions for leather and wool to create Hyde and Sheep. They sell their hand-crafted leather goods from a studio in the wild Welsh mountains at the Corris Craft Centre, Mid Wales.

Items include belts, dog collars, journals, earrings – even dragon heads!

The leather for each items is hand-picked, cut, stained, tooled and stitched to create these pieces. The wool gifts are made using wool from Welsh mountain sheep and hand-spun on a traditional spinning wheel.

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Wam Bam Campervan, based in Kent, do caravan conversions as well as day van for purchase and for hire. On All Things Campervan, they sell parts too.

The man behind the vans is Martin who loved the outdoors throughout his childhood, exploring all around the UK.

His background in engineering and his work in welding, building and electronics lent itself to building kit cars and restoring Type 2 campervans, all of which give him a unique set of skills which he uses to build great campervans.

Martin and his wife, Natalie, have owned and run a bathroom and kitchen company for over 15 years but Martin’s love of the outdoors brought him back to campervans. Martin prides himself on the finish, the workmanship and the practicality of his designs.

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Brits love a funny business name – they make you and your business more memorable, leaving a lasting impression on customers and the local community.

In fact, a study by Simply Business reveals that 28 per cent of the people that it surveyed are more likely to shop with a small business that has a witty or a funny name compared to businesses without. On top of that, 64 per cent of businesses would be more likely to notice a business with a funny name, with 57 per cent believing that it makes the business more memorable saying that it adds appreciation and personality to the business.

For its inaugural Britain’s Best Small Business Name award, Simply Business set out to find the brilliant business names across the country.

We take a look at some of the funniest business names on the list (plus a couple of extras) and the stories behind them.

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