In 2012, Paulina Byrne opened her first cake shop in Brixton Village Market, South London. Unfortunately, the shop was closed due to the pandemic, so Paulina ran the business from home for the next 2 years. She has now opened a new shop in St Albans.

In September this year, Sponge and Cream opened at 26 London Road, St Albans. For the owner, Paulina, baking has been a lifelong passion. After studying business and accounting at university, she got a job in IT. However, she did not like the 9-5 lifestyle of her job, so she decided to quit and go into baking full time.

Over the years, she has learnt many skills from owning a business, such as customer service as well as how to manage people and finances. She loves meeting people and producing products that she truly believes in. Making people happy by producing something to add to their special event is something that she finds particularly rewarding.

Since opening her first shop, she has gained a lot more recognition and her products have evolved, along with her skills in baking and managing a business. “I’m still learning everyday, even though I’ve been doing it for many years. There’s always something new to learn.” Everything is made from scratch to order in house, which is something that sets her apart from other similar businesses.

Being new in St Albans, Paulina says it is very different from London. In St Albans, there is more of a sense of community, and many of the other businesses in the area introduced themselves to her when she first arrived. In the future, she wants to become more involved in the community and work with other local businesses to see how they can help each other.