Mari took a leap of faith with her coffee shop

Mari Corduff is the Cake Queen! But like many other businesswomen, it’s not something she set out to be. Mari owns The Cake Queen coffee shop in Belmullet and produces novelty cakes for all occasions as well. Like a lot of others, the business grew out of a deep love for baking, which began at home with Mari’s mother.

Mari took a leap of faith and set up her baking business ten years ago and progressed to a coffee shop two years ago. She is busy, not just with her business, but with her two children as well, but you get the impression that she thrives on producing a good quality product and providing a space in the community where people can congregate.

We sit down to chat in The Cake Queen on a sunny day in Belmullet.

Angelina: Mari, thanks for talking to me. Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Mari: I was raised in Rossport. I moved out of Rossport when my little fella was two - we moved to Belmullet. I started doing a little bit of cake decorating in the house. I just had a bit of interest in baking, but every time I was baking, I was eating the end result! So I said, right, I need to come up with an idea that I can bake and move them on to other people. 

I started doing that, and then I wondered what it'd be like to get into decorating them rather than just doing a basic baked cake. My sister-in-law's sister was christening their baby and I did a cake for them as a gift. It was the very first cake that I ever made at that level, and I actually still have a picture of it. And when I look back now, I'm thinking, I can't believe I gave that to them! At the time I thought it was brilliant. But that's where it started. And I just ordered a box of icing and went from there.

Angelina: That's over ten years ago, but was it something you would have had an interest in when you were younger, was it not?

Mari: My mum was a big baker, so we obviously grew up around that. I love baking, and I find it very therapeutic. I did it a lot in the evenings because I had a young child at the time as well. It was tough trying to juggle everything. Dylan, my son, turns 16 in June. So it was working around that as well and trying to find something that would allow me to be at home with him, but also something that I enjoyed doing. 

There was no big ambition to turn this into a business. So I kept going at that for about a year, making bits and pieces for my friends and family. And then I thought, what have I to lose by trying it at a business level? I decided to try it from the house - baking cakes in the kitchen. I had to go down the road of getting the kitchen certified with the Environmental Health Officer. And before I knew it, it all just fell into place. 

I registered the kitchen, the business, the whole lot, in November 2013. I had my little girl in 2015. It was after that I knew I wanted to get out and talk to people during the day. When she started pre-school, I thought, look, I'd love to find something for the hours that they're in school, just to get out for a bit of adult conversation and not be stuck in my own head for the whole day, as much as I loved the baking. So I actually started working in Brogan's Eurospar. At the time I started in the deli. And I ended up loving that. And Annette Brogan was brilliant at the time. I had said to her that I only could work whilst the kids were in school. She was so accommodating in that sense, and I loved it. I worked there for three years until I decided that The Cake Queen was going to happen.

Angelina: So how did that come about?

Mari: I used to go for a walk in the evenings with my friend, and I used to say to her, 'I'll open a bakery in Belmullet at some stage, or a coffee shop'. Whether I believed it would happen or not was another thing! 

We were away one weekend when I just had this notion that the only way it'd happen was if I actually started looking. Is there any unit in Belmullet that I could start from? My partner said to me, 'Actually, I think Tom Talbot is renting out the unit on Barrack Street.' So I called him and he said that he was going to rent it out. I asked if I could look at it. We came in and walked around it. And of course, I said, 'We're going to make something happen. We agreed on all the little bits, and I went to the bank for a loan. I remember at the time, I said, 'I'm going to make it happen. Whether you want to back me or not, I will open the business.'

The guy in the bank was laughing at what I said on the phone. I said, 'I just obviously would prefer to take out a loan and be able to get straight into it.' They approved the loan, and I got decorating. And then it was just all a whirlwind and I knew it was happening, whether I liked it or not.

Angelina: So you opened during Covid times, the tail end of that?

Mari: Covid had passed, but it was still very uncertain. All your stickers had to be put down, all those protocols had to be met, which we did. That Christmas of 2021, all the staff that I had employed came down with Covid on that Christmas Week. I ended up closing two days before Christmas Eve. We just had to close and forget about it until January. But look, it definitely wasn't the only place that happened in either. 

We got up and running again once Christmas had passed, so we opened properly in January and here we are. We're here two years since last December 10th. And it's been a learning curve.

Angelina: Mari, what does a typical day look like - I know you probably don't have typical days but what does your day entail?

Mari: Early morning baking is a big part of it! We do scones, sausage rolls, croissants, brownies. About 70% of the stuff we have here, we bake ourselves, and then we buy in certain things, because obviously we're not a machine, so we have to have a bit of a break. Then at lunchtime, we have soup, sandwiches, paninis, wraps and then all your coffees. 

I wasn't a coffee drinker. I only started drinking coffee maybe two or three years before I opened the business. You need to go and study it to open a business like this. We trained with the Galway Barista School. And then, obviously, I worked with EHO to lay out the kitchen for me, so that whatever specifications they needed, I had to meet all of that first. And they were a great help because otherwise you'd be putting stuff everywhere and not knowing what's what. 

When I opened first, I was only planning on doing sweet stuff. Savoury wasn't really in the plan because I was like, no, I'm the Cake Queen! Cakes are my thing. I'm sticking to sweet stuff. And everyone was saying to me, you'll find it hard to just do sweet stuff. And when I looked into it, I was like what extra is it, really? All you needed was your panini machine and your sandwich fillings and stuff like that. Before I knew it, I had a full menu. We do novelty cakes as well, so birthday cakes, wedding cakes, etc.

Angelina: I know during the recent red weather warning, you provided a space for people to do if they had no power.

Mari: My attitude is if you're in a position to help someone, then do it. That's how I was brought up. I was open here anyway. And the smallest thing, it isn't exactly an act of heroism. I mean, without my community where would I be? I just think it's lovely to walk in and have a friendly place where they can come in and spend a bit of time. They could be having the worst day ever, and you just want someone to smile and say, 'Hello, how are you?' and put the coffee on. It might only be for the 10 or 15 minutes that they're in here, but just to have a place. Life goes on again. When you go back out the door, it doesn't get rid of any problems, but it's nice to be greeted with a bit of smile and a bit of craic and stuff like that.

Angelina: What keeps you driven Mari?

Mari: Usually on Friday evenings I decide I'm closing and then by Monday, I'm going to stay open! I'm exhausted and everything else and there's a line of stuff that still needs to be done on Saturday. And you're like, 'No, I'm done'. And then by Monday, you're like, 'right, let's go'. I think you either have it or you don't. It's not something that you just decide to have if the goal isn't in you and if you don't love it. You could have a day where you just think everything is going against you. Every problem that you could have is happening today, but I still come away from it by saying, I love what I'm doing.

Angelina: What advice would you give to someone who wants to try getting into business?

Mari: Bite now and learn to chew later. Just go for it. My attitude the entire way through it was 'What's the worst that can happen?' You can revert back to whatever you were doing beforehand, but at least you'll never be able to say, 'Oh, I wonder if I had done that, what would it have been like?' Even on those days where I think 'This just is not good'. But the worst that can happen is you close the door, and it didn't work out, but at least you tried.