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20
Mar
‘I might have to close', warns Kirkby Overblow's cake woman after honesty box thefts
A Kirkby Overblow baker has warned she will have to close her honesty box cake stall if people continue to steal from it.
Sharon Windham owns The Cake Shed, a self-made cake stall in the village, which relies on donations to its honesty box.
The shed, which started at Easter last year, contains four shelves of treats.
It is open from 9am to 7pm daily and attached to Ms Windham’s property.
But a recent surge of people not using the honesty box to pay for their cakes has left Ms Windham questioning whether to continue.
She told the Stray Ferret:
I like to trust people, but have caught a couple of people over the last fortnight. I thought it would be lovely to open one of these. Things are so expensive now, and I don’t make a lot from it, but I just like doing it because I love baking. It makes me feel really sad when people aren’t honest, because it’s a lot of hard work.
Things are hard for everybody, but that doesn't give people the right to steal from other people. In this day and age, people are finding things difficult, but I don’t want that to spill into what I’m doing, or I might have to close.
Ms Windham’s Cake Shed is on Wharfe View in Kirkby Overblow.
The treats on offer range from sweets, cakes, brownies, flapjacks, refreshments and even dog biscuits.
She said people come from as far as Sicklinghall and Wetherby for her traybakes. Her flapjack is a particular favourite.
The Cake Shed has been given a five-star hygiene rating by North Yorkshire Council's Food Standards Agency.
Ms Windham added the majority of customers are honest with their payments, and it was heartwarming to see how it brings the community together. She loves it when older people come from further villages for her baking.
But she’s worried that the minority could spoil it for the majority. She said:
I’ll have to seriously think about what happens next if it continues. There’s a suggestion book inside the shed which has so many wonderful messages from the people who use it. There are so many people saying it’s a brilliant idea. It would be a shame for them to have to close.
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