My story began over 10 years ago when, as a passionate baker with a sweet tooth and a love for creating beautiful desserts, I decided to turn my passion into a business and begged my Dad for a small corner in his hardware store, where I set up with a small domestic oven and a coffee machine. You can read how I started below
Today, the bakery is known for our signature scratch-made celebration cakes, which are carefully crafted to meet the unique preferences of each and every customer.
In addition to our celebration cakes, we also offer a mouthwatering selection of cupcakes, which are perfect for parties, weddings, corporate events, or just a sweet treat to enjoy on the go. Our cupcakes come in a variety of flavours and are available to purchase daily from our café.
But that’s not all – our bakery also offers a variety of other sweet treats, including cookies, brownies, cheesecakes , gateaux and much more. From our chewy chocolate chip cookies to our fudgy brownies, every treat is made from scratch and guaranteed to satisfy your sweet tooth.
At our bakery, we believe that every sweet moment in life deserves a delicious treat. Whether you’re celebrating a special occasion or just need a little pick-me-up, we’ve got the perfect sweet treat to make your day a little sweeter. So stop by and visit us today – we can’t wait to share our love of baking with you!
We bake for all occasions and events. Please take a look at our portfolio to get a flavour of what we can do. Don’t hesitate to contact us with your ideas and suggestions for your special occasion.
Awards: I won the Laois and regional finals of IBYE (Ireland’s best young entrepreneur) and competed in the 2016 national finals. In 2017 I won a Laois business award for best e-commerce business.
In 2018 our Café and Bakery in Parkside won Best Café in the Midlands in the Irish Restaurant Awards
In 2018 our café in Parkside won the best café in Laois in the Midlands Radio customer service awards
TV: I regularly contribute on Virgin Media IrelandAM, demonstrating simple and delicious bakes.
I am delighted to be a regular contributor to the baking slot on TV3’s IrelandAM. You can follow me on Instagram to see behind the scenes of the show and recipes and videos can be found on the IrelandAM website http://www.tv3.ie/shows/irelandam
I will put blog posts up of the recipes too so keep checking back!
For as long as I can remember I have loved to bake
Like most bakers the love started as I watched my mother baking in the kitchen. I couldn’t wait to get my hands into the flour and “help” her. I’m sure my first attempts were pretty inedible (but I was never told so) but I kept at it. I found it therapeutic, relaxing. If I were ever upset about something I would rush into the kitchen and bake dozens of cupcakes. Somehow that soothed me. I got great satisfaction producing tasty cakes and other goodies.
I studied retail business in college, with the aim that I might get involved in the family hardware business. There was still that need in me to bake, to produce lovely cakes for family and friends whether for birthdays or going away parties or welcome home parties!
After college I worked in the family business for a year and nagged and nagged my Dad to put in a small coffee corner into the store. I thought that it would be nice to have a little corner and I would spend part of my working day baking a few dozen cupcakes a week in-store to sell. A few dozen!!!
So Kelly Lou’s was born – Lou coming from my middle name Louise.
When word had got out that Kelly Lou cake café was open (in a hardware store of all places!) customers started coming in to taste the cakes and would more often than not bring home a box or two.
Before long I had to recruit my Mum (and occasionally my Dad, brother and sister) and we were baking hundreds of cupcakes a week along with layer cakes, loaf cakes, cookies, macarons, whoopie pies…as well as celebration cakes for birthdays, christenings, communions, weddings. I opened a commercial bakery around the corner and in December 2017 opened a 2nd larger café in Parkside, Portlaoise. I couldn’t manage the business without my fantastic team.
Our menus are influenced by the beautiful cake bakeries I have visited in America and London but I also add a little french twist occasionally as a nod to the immaculate patisseries I have visited in France.
I hope you like your visit to our website. Please take a look at our portfolio which we will try to keep updated and we would love to see you in Kelly Lou’s soon!
We can take cake orders here online, or by our cake query form, telephone or email. Please see contact details here
(Please note we cannot take orders through Instagram or facebook)
If you prefer to speak to one of our team in person you can call in to see us in our café where you can order cakes and enjoy our fresh bakes with a cup of freshly brewed tea or ground-to-order coffee, or take them away to enjoy at home.
