Waterlooville cake maker follows dreams to see her baked treat company go from strength to strength while supporting the community

Owner Wendy Campion, 51, officially launched The Blue Box Cake Company in November after initial plans to open in March were ruined by the pandemic.

Wendy, a mum to one daughter, said: ‘Unfortunately my mum passed away during that time and I lost all interest in wanting to start the business.

‘It wasn’t until October time I could hear my mum nagging me - follow my dreams.

‘It has been a challenging year, but I thought if I don’t have a go, I’d always regret it. If I don’t follow my heart and do my dreams and done as mum wished - the worst is, it doesn’t work, but at least I gave it a go.’

However the business continues to grow, and Wendy says that the feedback she has received from customers has been ‘brilliant’.

‘I’m very much like most cake bakers, you never 100 per cent believe in yourself, but the feedback has been amazing and people have been very kind,’ Wendy added.

Wendy, who says she has ‘always loved baking’, grew up in Ditchling where she fondly remembers enjoying tea with Dame Vera Lynn in her garden.

As a little girl at the time, Wendy ‘didn’t know as much about her as I should have, but she was very humble and lovely.’

Today, The Blue Box Cake Company is run from Wendy’s home as the cost of shop rent in Waterlooville is too high.

She loves to create all sorts of delicious goodies: ‘I love doing wedding cakes, anything really - cupcake bouquets, dessert tables, cookies, treat boxes.

‘I like to do unique things.’

But where does the company’s name come from?

‘I’m a huge Doctor Who fan, and I actually have a full sized TARDIS in my garden, and five Daleks’, Wendy said.

‘There’s always been the love there, and my daughter was very much into Doctor Who, and over the years we’ve built a collection up.

‘As I was painting the TARDIS in the summer, it just came to me.’

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Wendy is very keen to help her local community.

As a Lady Freemason and a member of Portsmouth Lodge of Duty number 77, she has contributed cakes for The News and Freemasons’ Community Chest initiative.

Wendy said: ‘Part of what we do is charity - so I thought, why not supply cake as a prize?

‘They’ve been very supportive of me and helped me at a time when I was really struggling. ‘This is my way of giving back to them to say thank you.’

She also decided to use her stock of baking ingredients - bought in preparation for her business’s opening but set to go to waste due to the pandemic - to create treats for other people in her community.

Wendy added: ‘I just started baking again for the neighbours.

‘I done some cupcakes for the people who looked after my mum, and then it went from there - I wanted to thank all of QA.

‘We’ve got a lot of elderly neighbours and they weren’t getting contact - it was just to let them know that they were being thought of and they weren’t alone.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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