We all love a treat, so it’s no surprise that the owner of a popular dessert bakery has built a sugary empire by managing to tap into the county’s sweet tooth.

But how has she done it in less than a year? Reporter Megan Carr spent a day at Cheran’s Bakery to learn what goes on behind the scenes...

Cheran Friedman began her business journey in June 2022 when she opened her first bakery in West Street in her home town of Sittingbourne.

At the time the 30-year-old hoped she’d have a handful of customers. She never dreamed that just 12 months on she’d have four stores and hundreds of shoppers buying her baked goods every day.

Cheran celebrated her shop’s six-month anniversary by opening a second store in Canterbury in December.

She then opened a third in the former Love Brownies shop in Rochester High Street – a location so popular it was even used to film the hit Netflix series, The Crown.

As her business grew, the ex-Fulston Manor pupil had to move her cooking facility from the small kitchen behind her Sittingbourne store to a much larger unit in the Eurolink Industrial Park.

As I arrived there, I was met with the smiling faces of Cheran and her bakers, all of whom had been busy cooking in the summer heat since 5am that morning.

It was brilliant to see how far the business had come since I visited the Sittingbourne store on its opening day.

Reminiscing, Cheran said: “I didn’t expect this at all when I opened.

“I just hoped we’d get one customer a day.

“But now, across all the stores, we get 80 to 100 people per store buying our bakes on weekdays alone.”

Cheran employs 27 people across her company and also relies on family members for support.

Brooke Parker, who lives in Minster on Sheppey, started working with Cheran in April.

The 19-year-old said: “I love it. It’s such a nice job. Everyone’s really friendly and we all get along really well.

“The early start is the only thing no one likes but it helps that everyone is so friendly. It makes you want to work.”

During my visit, I helped Cheran and her team with some of the 300 Father’s Day orders which had been placed by people from all over Kent.

From filling the boxes, to hand painting gold lettering on sugar cookies and tying bows on each package, everything was done by hand.

While chatting with Cheran about the last year I watched on as she folded and put together each individual cupcake box for her order.

Over 45 minutes she had made about 10 of the containers. I was starting to understand how all the little, time-consuming things, make up such a big part of her business.

It isn’t just the baked treat and the ingredients that customers are paying for but the hours it takes to fold boxes and prepare everything so the food looks as inviting as it does.

While Cheran was making special edition Lotus Biscoff stuffed cakes I helped with packing up the brownie selection trays.

Each is lovingly filled with six enormous brownies before a note, card and hand-tied bow is placed onto it.

It’s those little things that make all the difference and I think that’s why people keep coming back for more.

Cheran, a mum-of-two, also thinks her shop’s recognisable packaging and pretty takeaway boxes are what built her brand's name.

She explained: “Anything that we have printed – so business cards, gift tags, stickers, anything like that – is made by Handyprints in Queenborough. They are amazing.

“I like to work with local people because we support each other. A favour for you, a party entertainment service, do all our flower displays outside each shop.

“We try and make everything look seasonal, it really helps with the Instagramable side of things.”

Cheran said she thinks the aesthetically pleasing looks of her shops are also what helped with her business's popularity. However, this shouldn’t undermine her eye-watering working hours.

She said: “If my partner has a day where he is working from home I start work at 4am.

“However, on special occasions, I have been known to do 24-hour shifts.

“It’s hard to balance everything with family time and commitments, especially with things like picking up my two girls from school.

“Everyone makes you feel guilty about not being with your kids all the time.

“I was self-employed and working from home for eight years whilst raising my children, but now they are both at school and I’m doing something that I absolutely love whilst being a mum.

“Olivia is four and Sophia is nine and it’s natural they’re going to miss me when I’m working but they understand that with both parents working we can afford to do nicer things like days out and holidays – especially with the cost-of-living crisis.”

Although she did reveal that over the King’s Coronation weekend, she worked for the best part of 32 hours, Cheran firmly believes it is her branding that has brought her success.

She said: “The way the business looks and the effort we put in means this is something nice for the area.

“You can buy brownies anywhere but it’s the boxes, the attention to detail and their huge sizes which make people like them.

“I’d like to think everyone appreciates the effort we put in. Anyone can open a shop but it’s the attention to detail which makes all the difference.”

While helping out in her kitchen I was given the opportunity to make the bakery’s popular fudge cake jars – chocolate cake layered with chocolate ganache in a plastic container.

Having never worked in a kitchen before I didn’t really know how generous to be with the portion sizes.

But Cheran explained that everything she made needed to be on the indulgent side of the sweetness scale.

Each pot was flooded with chocolate ganache which was made fresh, by hand, by warming chocolate with cream.

There are three big spoonfuls of chocolate cake crammed into the tiny pots with each layer getting sealed into place with – you guessed it – more chocolate ganache.

When I finished making the jars I felt like I could give Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory a run for his money, my mouth was watering.

Despite the jars being my new love, Cheran explained that the fresh cinnamon buns are the best sellers at all her stores.

She said: “It's the adults who get more excited in the shops than kids.

“Kids love the cookies and adults like the milkshakes. Believe it or not, personally I don’t have a big sweet tooth but the peach and raspberry iced tea we offer is my favourite thing.”

The hard-working mum said there isn’t a day when all the cakes, cookies, brownies, blondies and much much more aren’t all sold out in her stores.

Every morning a new delivery to each shop has to be made, hence her bakers’ very early start.

Thanks to her success Cheran has been invited to speak at the careers day at Westlands School in Sittingbourne and Sheppey College. She has also been invited as a guest of honour at an award ceremony at her old school, Fulston Manor.

She said: “I think they want me to speak to the children because I’m younger and that means my journey is more relatable to the children. They can look at me and say ‘that could be me’.

“At 14 you’re expected to know what you want to do for the rest of your life. It’s not an easy decision to make so I hope by speaking to the students I can help them with their understanding of starting a business and how to make it successful.”

Although nothing is set in stone yet Cheran is hoping to expand her bakery even further by opening more shops across the county.

To learn more about Cheran’s business search Cheran’s Bakery on social media.