When we came across Bluebelle, we fell in love with her (no, seriously).
And then when we realised that she was an integral part of a bakery that served a delicious and colourful array of cakes we fell in love a little more.
Bluebelle Bakery is a passionately run business that functions on the basis of hard-work and creativity.
This creative streak is obvious from the very idea of using a vintage caravan as part of the business, and this certainly sets it apart from the rest of the bakeries that we know.
Using the vintage theme as her inspiration, Sonja Sharkey told us that the caravan seemed to fit in perfectly with what she did and her love for all things vintage meant that she could combine her passion for baking with the flexibility of a touring caravan and create something truly different.
A mum to three young children, Sonja explained that although she had previously worked in optics, her passion has always been baking and cooking ever since she could remember.
The Bluebelle Bakery business was actually the best accidents of sorts as it was not planned and the business developed through a series of baking assignments for friends which lead to their incredible popularity on Facebook.
Trying to pinpoint an exact time reference for her business, Sonja said that the baking had started in December last year when she started baking Christmas cupcakes for friends and family.
Once she put the pictures of the cupcakes up on Facebook, there was an instant stream of messages from people who demanded more.
Speaking about the unbelievable response, Sonja said: “I think I must have made 500 of them last Christmas!”
Sonja believes that most ideas and inspiration for baking comes from these very customers and who they are as people, especially if Sonja knows them well.
However, it wasn’t until the summer that Sonja decided to take her business on the road by investing in a classic caravan.
Speaking enthusiastically about her inspiration for Bluebelle, Sonja explained that the bolt of lightning struck her as she was wandering around a food festival with her sister, on a sunny day, in August.
As she soaked in the atmosphere with the enticing aroma of food, Sonja said: “I saw all these pop up pizza ovens and other lovely things and started to think to myself ‘why not have a pop-up vintage tearoom?’
“I love all things vintage so I thought I could get myself a cute little vintage caravan and turn it into one.”
And that is precisely what Sonja did, after a lot of searching, when she finally found her perfect caravan. She proceeded to turn the caravan inside-out and after two months of hard graft, Bluebelle was ready for business.
Curious about the namesake of the caravan, we asked Sonja if the name had been inspired by anything in particular, since it seems be reminiscent of a very vintage feel.
Walking down memory lane, Sonja spoke about the long, arduous process behind the name choice.
She had already decided that she would paint her caravan blue as it was her favourite colour and ‘Belle’ is the name of her daughter and therefore it seemed like the perfect choice for a name.
But the thing that really clinched the name ‘Bluebelle’ for Sonja was “the discovery of bluebells growing wild in my garden as I was thinking of the name. This felt like a sign to me.”
Although Bluebelle has only travelled to one baking event so far, Sonja is hopeful that she will get to see a lot more of the country in the future.
In particular, Sonja is wishing for lots of bookings for the new year as she reasoned that it is only a matter of knowing where to advertise for Bluebelle.
Finally, we asked Sonja about the highs and lows of owning as well as running Bluebelle.
She explained that the highs for her are the reactions that she gets from people when they see Bluebelle for the very first time.
There are usually exclamations of how pretty the caravan is and it makes her feel like all the hard work was worth it.
Choosing not to focus too much on the pitfalls, Sonja did admit that she felt like “giving up a thousand times” when she came across caravan problems like damp and broken electrics.
However, ultimately, our touring baker is happy and relieved that she chose to go ahead with Bluebelle and let her grow and blossom.
We at CaravanTimes wish Sonja well and hope that the Bluebelle Bakery comes to a town close to you very soon!
