Baby Mayhem, the popular Ancoats bakery where doughnuts and sweet treats were served from a hatch, has announced it has closed.
Founded by James Turner, the bakery opened in the former Lazy Tony's Lasagneria site on Radium Street in April last year and quickly went viral, with queues down the street for its freshly-made creations. It became known for its soft-serve ice cream and iced coffees, alongside doughnuts in flavours including raspberry ripple, pistachio and tiramisu.
Building works blamed for closure
Within a month of opening, the bakery was visited by Moston rapper Aitch, who posed for pictures outside the shop and later took to social media, hailing his order as a '10/10'.
In a post over the weekend, James said the Baby Mayhem hatch had now closed 'for now', citing ongoing building works in the area which have had a 'huge impact' on the bakery.
He posted: “After an incredible year and a half, we’ve made the really difficult decision to close the Baby Mayhem hatch *for now*. Over the past few months, ongoing building works have left much of the site under construction, making it increasingly difficult for us to operate consistently. We’ve only managed to open seven days in the last 8 weeks.
“The works have also had a huge impact on our kitchen, making it impossible to create our desserts to the standard we expect from Baby Mayhem. Alongside the disruption and proposed increased rent, continuing to operate from the hatch simply isn’t sustainable right now.”
Pop-ups and future plans
But he said ‘this is not the end of Baby Mayhem’, and said he was looking at other potential options to continue the bakery. Their pop-up stall outside Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium will continue as normal at home games, whilst they will also have a presence at the club’s Joie Stadium during the Women's Super League for all home games.
James said he will also bring the Baby Mayhem Burger concept back to Manchester Metropolitan University for another term, whilst he teased that ‘we love a Christmas market’ - adding speculation they could appear at this year’s festive offerings in the city.
“Sometimes in business you have to take one step back to take two steps forward,” he added. “For now, the hatch is closing but Baby Mayhem isn’t.
“To everyone who has supported us over the last year and a half, thank you. This isn’t goodbye. It’s *”we’ll see you soon*”.”
Customers react
The update was met with a mixture of sadness and understanding from some of the bakery’s most loyal customers. One person said: “Gutted to see you go from Ancoats bro but excited for the pop ups! Onwards and upwards!
