Cake Delivery in Chelsea, Kensington and Knightsbridge

The kitchen is in Belgravia, SW1. That is a fact with practical consequences for anybody ordering into the surrounding postcodes, and it is worth setting them out plainly rather than leaving them on a delivery page nobody reads.

The central London postcodes

Delivery is £12 to: SW1 Belgravia and Victoria, SW3 Chelsea, SW5 Earls Court, SW6 Fulham, SW7 South Kensington and Knightsbridge, SW10 West Brompton, W1 Mayfair and Marylebone, W2 Hyde Park and Paddington, and W8 Kensington.

Everywhere else across London and Surrey is £15, which covers a great deal of ground and is explained in its own article.

The £12 rate is not a marketing band. It reflects the fact that a cake going to Chelsea leaves the kitchen and arrives within a short drive, in one vehicle, without being handed to anybody.

What being close actually buys you

Three things, and only one of them is speed.

The cake is handled once. It is boxed in the kitchen and it comes out of the box at your door. There is no depot, no transfer between vehicles, no overnight in a van. For a cream cake this is the difference between arriving as it left and arriving having been somewhere.

The timing is real. Because we are not handing the order to a national network, the slot you are given is one we control.

And if something goes wrong, it can be fixed. A cake damaged in transit across the country is a refund conversation. A cake damaged between Belgravia and Sloane Square is one we can look at and, often, replace.

The notice period does not change

Being local does not mean same day. Everything needs 48 hours and bread needs 72, in Chelsea exactly as in Croydon, because the constraint is the baking rather than the driving.

This is the single most common misunderstanding we deal with. The cake does not exist when you order it. A honey cake ordered on Monday is baked on Tuesday, rests overnight, and goes out on Wednesday. Living ten minutes away does not shorten the night it spends in the fridge.

About delivery times

We deliver within a time window rather than at a time, and we cannot narrow it further on the day.

There are good reasons for this and none of them will be satisfying if you are waiting. Traffic in central London is not predictable to the quarter hour. A driver with several drops cannot know how long a delivery to a mansion block with a concierge will take until they are in it. Committing to an exact time would mean either padding the window enormously or being wrong.

So: choose your window at the checkout, expect the delivery within it, and plan the occasion around the window rather than around a moment. If a cake is for an evening, an afternoon window is the safe choice rather than the one that finishes closest to the party.

Honey Cakefrom £76Sold outBear in the North Cake£68

If nobody is in

Tell us at the checkout. There is a delivery note field and it is read.

A concierge or porter is the easiest answer in most Chelsea and Knightsbridge buildings, and it is what most of our central London deliveries do. Give us the building name and the fact that there is a desk.

A neighbour works. A safe place does not, for anything with cream in it, in any weather. We will not leave a cake behind a bin and we would rather come back.

If nobody is in and there is nowhere named, the driver will call the number on the order. That is why the number matters.

Ordering for a hotel or a restaurant

We do this regularly and there are two things worth knowing.

Tell the venue first. Many restaurants have a policy about outside cakes, some charge a cutting fee, and a small number will not accept one at all. Finding this out at the door is a bad evening.

And send it earlier than the booking. A cake arriving at a restaurant at seven for a seven thirty table is a cake sitting in a corridor. Most kitchens are happy to take it in the afternoon and put it in a fridge.

Courier delivery versus local delivery

A great deal of cake sold online in Britain arrives by overnight courier, and it is worth understanding what that means, because it explains why the cakes offered that way are the cakes they are.

An overnight courier network sorts parcels at a depot, usually at night, usually on a conveyor, and a parcel may change vehicles twice. Nothing in that process is temperature controlled unless it has been specially arranged, and nothing in it is gentle.

A cake that survives it must be sturdy, stable at room temperature, and boxed to take a knock. In practice that means a loaf cake, a brownie, a heavily iced cake, or something frozen with a coolant pack. It is why the nationally available cake market is what it is.

What it cannot carry is a soft layered cake with cream in it. Not because anybody is careless, but because the physics of an overnight network do not allow it.

Delivering ourselves, in one vehicle, within a day's drive, is what makes it possible to send a medovik or a Napoleon at all. It is a smaller area and a better cake, and that is the trade.

Common questions

How much is delivery to Chelsea or Kensington?

£12 to SW1, SW3, SW5, SW6, SW7, SW10, W1, W2 and W8. £15 everywhere else in London and Surrey.

Is there a minimum order?

Yes, £50 across the basket.

Can I get a cake the same day?

No. Everything needs 48 hours notice and bread needs 72, regardless of how close you are.

Can you tell me the exact delivery time?

No. Deliveries arrive within a time window chosen at the checkout, and we cannot narrow that to a specific time on the day. Traffic and the drops before yours make any exact promise unreliable.

Can you deliver to a hotel or restaurant?

Yes. Check their policy on outside cakes first, and send it earlier in the day rather than just before the booking.

What if I am not at home?

Leave a note at the checkout naming a concierge, a porter or a neighbour. We do not leave cakes in a safe place.

Ordering

Choose your delivery date at least 48 hours ahead at the checkout, pick a window, and the order is baked for that date.