'Everyone kept asking' - Kildare woman using late aunt's handwritten recipes in cake shed
Colleen Dunne from Kildare created a cake bake shed in honour of her late aunt who died from breast cancer and left behind her handwritten recipes
Colleen Dunne from Kildare set up a successful cake bake shed in October 2025 in honour of her late aunt.
Her aunt Siobhan Carroll sadly passed away from breast cancer in October 2024.
Siobhan was a chef by trade and left behind many handwritten recipes of sweet treats that her niece Colleen now has and uses.
"She used to cook and bake for everybody, from brown breads to lemon drizzles. So everyone kept asking me then to cook them when she passed, so that's how it all started".
Pictured: Mother and daughter, Patricia Rose and Colleen Dunne and aunt Siobhan Carroll
"So obviously baking was her kind of thing at the time...it got her out in the community a bit more and helped her a lot at the time."
The Cake Bake Shed started off as a garden shed from Amazon and now, located near Kilcullen in Kildare, is a bright and colourful cake business that has become very successful.
PICTURED: Rosie (8) supplying chicken eggs to the Cake Bake Shed
Colleen said that since she started the Cake Bake Shed it has sold out every week, proving to be very popular and successful.
ABOVE: Siobhan's handwritten recipes finding new life in Colleen's Cake Shed
"But to be honest with you, I didn't think it would kick off as much as it did. I suppose social media has a lot to play with that as well....TikTok is as big a thing now.
Colleen spends two evenings a week, and some mornings baking bread, to bake her aunts handwritten recipes for the shed.
PICTURED: Colleen's children Thomas and Harper at the Cake Bake Shed
The Cake Bake Shed is filled and left from 9am until dark on Fridays and Saturdays but Colleen said that sometimes even by 3pm everything is gone.
She said despite it being an honesty box and no one is there to keep watch, the system in place still works very well for her.
"Thankfully I haven't had anyone steal anything. I do have two ring cameras on it and I have a QR code for people paying by card."