By Jed Lanyon
One of Healesville’s newest small businesses, Natures Cakes, opted to keep their cafe doors open throughout the entire Covid-19 pandemic, switching to a takeaway model to allow locals to continue to get their coffee and cake fix.
The small cafe opened Christmas week and had the misfortune of facing the global pandemic in their first months of operation. Now as restrictions ease, owners Darren Scott and Faith Samuel are looking forward to seeing customers enjoy their cakes in store again, while giving thanks to the Healesville community who helped them tough it out.
Surviving the pandemic was no piece of cake for the pair, who said they felt terrified with uncertainty as to whether they coupled continue to operate. Regular cake orders for events came grinding to a halt and they did not qualify for any government assistance as the business had been operating for less than the one year requirement.
“For the last ten weeks it’s been Faith and I here for seven days a week until five o’clock,” Mr Scott said. “We couldn’t have our casuals on site working for us so it’s just been us.
“It’s been incredibly hard but also incredibly rewarding and I think our local people are appreciative that we made that commitment to stay and be there for them.”
In a short time, Natures Cakes has made a unique connection with their customers, who have brought in fruits and vegetables from their own gardens, only to find them in Ms Samuel’s cakes the very next day.
“The reason why it’s called Natures Cakes is because I like to use fruits, vegetables and nuts in my baking… it’s a ‘closer to Earth’ style of cooking,” Ms Samuel said. “We grow some of our own stuff in the vegetable garden and we’re gifted a lot of stuff from the locals as well.”
“If someone walks in with rhubarb, well tomorrow morning we’re having rhubarb muffins,” Mr Scott said. “If somebody walks in with a bag of limes, we’ll zest and juice them and have Belgian lime teacake tomorrow.
“Our local people feel like they are a part of the business. We’ve had people walk in with quince or figs and they get a real kick out of seeing those things turned into beautiful cakes.
“Faith has been a passionate self-taught baker her whole life… We just wanted to bring a little bit of luxury to the town in terms of a nice piece of cake.
“The fun is just taking those raw materials and turning them into something beautiful that people love.”
