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Staying true to our humble roots!

As many of you know, we’re celebrating 20 years of Honeybuns this year. Our official birthday is 1st November!

honeybuns celebrates 20 years of being an award winning free from bakery

Honeybuns sprang into life in 1998. Emma was finishing student life and had a strong drive to do her own thing. She had really enjoyed working in patisseries and coffee bars in London and Oxford in her holidays and had also baked for friends and family, as well as catering for parties in her spare time.

Back in 1998, Emma felt that there was a real lack of honest, gorgeous tasting cakes, that tasted home made. She felt that customers shouldn’t have to settle for extended shelf life, margarine-laden, over-processed cakes.

Stack of gluten free cakes

Our early range of cakes

So Emma started baking cakes from her shared rented house. As she couldn’t drive at the time, she bought an old Post Office bike and delivered the cakes to cafes and delis in and around Oxford. Honeybuns grew organically from there. The concept was based on great ingredients; attention to texture and flavours; and a sustainable business model. These were Honeybuns founding principles and remain integral to the company today.

In 2002, Emma took the plunge and relocated the business to Dorset. She was looking for space and a rural location to grow the business from. When she came across Naish Farm, it ticked all the boxes.

Naish Farm, when it was still a dairy farm

Naish Farm, when it was still a dairy farm

Emma and her husband Matt (who both still own and run Honeybuns) supervised the conversion of the old cow stalls and milking parlour and Honeybuns began baking cakes in its new home in January 2003.

The bakery before conversion

The old milking parlour!

The inside of the bakery before conversion

The milking parlour before conversion to the bakery

Bakery exterior once converted

The bakery exterior after conversion. Very little has changed.

The bakery interior now!

The team room / New Product Development kitchen are housed in an old chicken shed now called The Bee Shack.

Bee shack in the early days

Emma and the Bee Shack in the early days. That’s the very bike that she used to deliver the cakes on!

Naish farm sign

Life at Naish Farm is special. We do pretty much everything in house, from the baking to packing, and New Product Development to packaging design, sales and PR. This ultimately means we are able to stay nimble and proactive in a fiercely competitive marketplace. The team is a motivating and kind bunch of people doing something we love in our quirky, creative but ultimately sustainable way.