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If you’ve followed us from our affiliate business Abda, thank you!
If you’re new, Hello, Hola, Ciao and Salam سلام 👋🏼
(more on the languages later…)
Welcome to our venture into the world of Cacao, Cake and Cuisine.
Over at Abda, creating bespoke Celebration Cakes, alongside baking our homemade cakes for Abda, has been a passion of ours for a couple of years now. We have recently branched into Wedding Cakes and also offer a range of Traybakes, Loaf Cakes and Cupcakes.
A few years ago, we also hosted a number of Cultural Cuisine evenings, showcasing family recipes originating from Sudanese and Egyptian cuisine and have dipped our toes into Catering! Alongside this, we have also been learning some new skills to bring you handcrafted, artisanal chocolates and so we have Cacao, Cake and Cuisine.
Please see the pages on the top menu to explore more about each aspect of our business.
So here we have: Hala.
- Abda, Sophie and Claire x
Hala originates from two things: the people and the person.
The Person
The name comes from our wonderful Mama Hala, the person!
Hala is our owner Abda’s Mama but has also become a Mother figure to the whole team and welcomed us all into her family. She has supported Abda (the person and the business) from day one and we wouldn’t be where we are without her love and support. Hala, we love you.
In Arabic, Hala translates to “Halo” (pronounced ‘H-air-la’) – hence the Halo above the whisk on our logo! To Abda, Hala is the “halo of her life”.
Claire aka “Claire-Bear” is our Head Chocolatier and Queen of Organisation, she keeps us all in line and keeps things running smoothly. If you need a good list, or anything fixing then Claire is the one we call! She attempts (and sometimes succeeds!) to be our DIY-Goddess and helped redesign and rebuild our first shop after flooding in January 2021. She also handcrafts our entire Cacao range!
She runs her own eco-friendly business ‘Henry’s Eco Living’ located within ‘Abda’ where you can purchase lots of eco-friendly goodies from reusable cups, reusable food wraps, fit-pit deodorant, skincare and washing-up supplies.
Having lived and worked with charities in South Africa and Australia, she has also brought cultural influences into the interior design of our first shop and is working on the same for ‘Hala’ along with adding some favourite recipes from her travels to our Cultural Fusion catering menu. She joined the team along with Soph in 2018 and is now firmly part of the furniture!
We all work very closely together as one, along with some help from our team at ‘Abda’.
Sophie is our Baker and Head of R&D and Social Media. She joined the ‘Abda’ family in 2018 and is now continuing her journey to Hala alongside her responsibilities at ‘Abda’. Soph has a passion for baking and over the years has developed the skills to specialise in baking/catering for allergies and specific dietary requirements, including gluten-free and vegan.
As her little brother has multiple allergies, Soph has been baking from a young age and has been able to bring her understanding of catering for allergies safely into the team. With allergies in most of our families, we are passionate about producing food which is safe and delicious for everybody to enjoy. Quality shouldn’t have to be compromised, regardless of your dietary requirements! Soph has spent the last 3 years of her time with us developing and perfecting our allergy-friendly recipes, with her carrot cake building up quite a reputation!
Soph also has a background in and passion for photography, she runs all our social media accounts and photographs the shops, food/drinks, retail and events as well as designing our social media campaigns, adverts and menus. She curates ideas from the team, creating menus that include a little bit of all of us.
Abda is our owner, of both ‘Hala’ and ‘Abda’ and is the heart and soul of what we do. She has taken both customers and staff under her wing and has created a space and community where everyone feels welcome, included, and appreciated. She has truly created another home and family for us all.
Originating from Sudan, Abda is a linguist speaking four languages (English, Arabic, Spanish and Italian - hence the languages mentioned earlier!) and has travelled to and lived in multiple countries across the world. This has brought a cultural influence and theme to both businesses, showcasing flavours and recipes from several different cultures, families, and friends. This influences a lot of the flavours we create, ingredients we use, recipes we cook, the way we work closely together and the values we hold as a business, team and family.
‘Abda’ started as ‘Ab’s Bakery’, focusing on cultural fusion baking before branching into her other passion: Coffee. ‘Abda’ opened in 2018 and has since grown into a cultural coffee hub and community, with ‘Hala’ being our next venture.
Fancy a special meal at home without all the fuss? Let us do the work for you! Check out our selection of prepared meals for you to cook and enjoy at home...