Baking a name for themselves

TASTE for business: Jason and Christina with their cupcakes

A FORMER car salesman is cooking on gas in a new career: cupcakes.

Jason Nixon quit his job as general manager at a Nissan dealership to set up The Cup and Cake Company in Chadderton after earning rave reviews from friends and family for his confectionery skills.

The 44-year-old took the baking plunge 18 months ago with the backing of his family, and has never looked back.

He has since acquired an investment partner, Christina Davis, from Sheffield, who handles the website and marketing arm of the growing business and is now actively seeking premises for a cake and coffee house where the baking can also be based.

“We need a high-street presence — location is everything,” says Jason, who is also a trained upholsterer.

He added: “I have looked at lots of potential sites. The business needs to be in an area where our products will be seen as specialist items. We won’t be selling sandwiches and quiches — just special cakes and excellent coffee.”

Ideally, he would like Manchester city centre. All the while he and Christina, a teacher who was one of 50 people to respond to the investment-partner advertisement, continue to grow the Cup and Cake Company.

They attend two farmers’ markets — in Stalybridge and Ashton — and are actively seeking others while meeting orders generated by the www.cupandcakecompany.co.uk website.

“We also handle a lot of orders for offices,” says Jason, adding: “I do all the baking myself, and all the products are sourced locally. Sales at the markets are increasing week on week and at the next we will have around 120, from vanilla and chocolate to bitter lemon and sponge.”

The idea for the business came from his wife, Joanne, who took a selection of Jason’s cakes to the school where she worked as a teaching assistant.

“From there one thing led to another and 18 months ago I quit my job and started doing this full time,” he said.