'Everyone kept asking' - Kildare woman using late aunt's handwritten recipes in cake shed

Colleen Dunne from Kildare set up a successful cake bake shed in October 2025 in honour of her late aunt.

Her aunt Siobhan Carroll sadly passed away from breast cancer in October 2024.

Siobhan was a chef by trade and left behind many handwritten recipes of sweet treats that her niece Colleen now has and uses.

"She used to cook and bake for everybody, from brown breads to lemon drizzles. So everyone kept asking me then to cook them when she passed, so that's how it all started".

"Siobhan had cancer five years ago and then it came back for the second time. In the meantime Siobhan actually lost her husband, she was only 55 so it was quite a bit traumatic.

Pictured: Mother and daughter, Patricia Rose and Colleen Dunne and aunt Siobhan Carroll

"So obviously baking was her kind of thing at the time...it got her out in the community a bit more and helped her a lot at the time."

The Cake Bake Shed started off as a garden shed from Amazon and now, located near Kilcullen in Kildare, is a bright and colourful cake business that has become very successful.

An eight-year-old girl called Rosie, who lives next door to the Cake Bake Shed, supplies eggs from her chickens to the shed every week.

PICTURED: Rosie (8) supplying chicken eggs to the Cake Bake Shed

Colleen said that since she started the Cake Bake Shed it has sold out every week, proving to be very popular and successful.

"Everyone kept asking me to bake stuff and I also wanted to spread the word of her recipes. So instead of selling them in a shop, it was easier to kind of do the honesty box so people can come and go themselves.

ABOVE: Siobhan's handwritten recipes finding new life in Colleen's Cake Shed

"But to be honest with you, I didn't think it would kick off as much as it did. I suppose social media has a lot to play with that as well....TikTok is as big a thing now.

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Colleen spends two evenings a week, and some mornings baking bread, to bake her aunts handwritten recipes for the shed.

Her mother Patricia Rose helps Colleen package the goods if she needs a hand and her little helpers Thomas and Harper, pictured below, help her put stickers on the all of the sweet treats.

PICTURED: Colleen's children Thomas and Harper at the Cake Bake Shed

The Cake Bake Shed is filled and left from 9am until dark on Fridays and Saturdays but Colleen said that sometimes even by 3pm everything is gone.

She said despite it being an honesty box and no one is there to keep watch, the system in place still works very well for her.

"Thankfully I haven't had anyone steal anything. I do have two ring cameras on it and I have a QR code for people paying by card."