Business overview
Head baker and founder of Milly’s Bakes, Hannah, running her social enterprise from the heart of Hackney, specialising in egg-free, dairy-free AND gluten-free brownies focusing on the use of naturally derived sugars based produce.
After giving birth to a beautiful daughter, Camilla (Milly), in 2012; a year into her Criminology degree, she embarked upon a baking habit to fill her maternity leave from the NHS, quickly finding out how calorific and gluten-filled bakes did not encourage her new motherly figure after gaining an alarming two stones. A journey began in creating brownies that were full of natural flavour, high quality and not full of added sugar and preservatives. On the journey of developing recipes, omitting the use of refined sugar, then realising there were enough existing sugars and natural sugars that would provide the wanted flavour she’d been seeking. After years of trialling recipes and Miss Milly giving her thumbs up and thumbs down, Milly’s Bakes was born in August 2018 through the Princes Trust Enterprise Program.
Being the community advocate SuperMum she is, she pursued an MBA in Public Health in 2018 soon discovering how much young children, particularly 10-11 year olds, were sitting targets of sugar-filled treats they fall victim to every day.
“There is a disturbing correlation to low income and poor diet and I find it is poor, or lack of knowledge and that is something I want to make accessible to all inner-city communities. I’ve been fortunate to have the background and experience I do in business, crime, youth work, mental and public health…the baking is just an added bonus!”
Furthering her academic background, her diplomas in Business, Finance and Marketing, not only supports her market stall trade, she gives back by imparting the knowledge of ‘do’s and don’ts’ in the business world, to young people and fellow women and mumpreneurs.
In November 2018, Hannah began a pilot scheme with Hackney’s youth hub services conducting sugar workshops with young people. These community workshops are funded from proceeds of retail sales as well as support from local councils aiming to educate young people on how to make healthier lifestyle choices with the use of existing and natural sugars.
Annual profits of the business are donated to support independent projects supporting mental health and homelessness .