14/06/2026
It's been nearly 4 years and we have seen alot of new people join our page, so here's a wee bit on how we came about, its not your typical "bought a store that had everything and systems in place" story.
Talofa, we are Karah & Sim, and we are the proud founders and owners of Simple Bakes Taupō.(Sims not big on socials hence why he isnt in alot of videos!) We arent afraid of massive hours, hard mahi & loving on people
Started it up in 2022, while juggling full time jobs and children & $20 left. Being bought up around hospitality i just knew we could give the baking a Crack. My husband hustled his full time job whilst we tried this baking gig from our teeny 70s kitchen. I was accepted into Market Central Taupō where I would sell out in the first couple of hours.
There was a little building that was mentioned that may be possibly available, over coffee with a friend, before we knew it, we were checking out the building, my husband said let's go for it & I was like, ok I'm not sure how but let's check out possibilities.
Before we knew it, we had the keys & lease. We kept this under wraps, to keep out outside noise and unnecessary comments/negative comments when all we wanted to do was "head down, bum up & give it a whirl".
4 months later we had our opening. We started with Shelby. The first day we were buzzing & had Annalise kindly offer to help & from then was also apart of the founding crew!
We had no system in place, no routine & started with about 200 cupcakes, a teeny square brownie & a few cakepops & cheesecakes. We SOLD out. Never did we think that slices and more would be apart of the menu.
As the weeks and months went on, there were tears every single hour of the day, overwhelm, uncertainty, finding our feet, thankfulness & negative vibes we were trying to trudge through.
Shelby left after a good stint to have her 2nd child & so we found our Aleah, it was so great being grilled for being a geriatric 🤣🤣
By now Annalise and I had found a wicked rhythm and systems in place but like all things, as the times change we had to find ways to adapt.
At this time we were also juggling hospital stays and endless hospital appts with our son who wasn't well at all, and the shop kept on turning.
Fast forward to this year, Bri has hit her year of being apart of the crew, our Annalise moved on and we reflected just on everything we built, all the motions and what it was Simple Bakes had created. It's a safe place, a place where people share their biggest life hurdles, we laugh with our customers, we cry & we give them flack!
By now Sim has also left his fulll time job to work for himself over at Yard Hustle Taupo where we have spent nearly a year building up clients, finding our feet blindly
This year we also had to go with the times, savoury food, and as much as we never really wanted to budge, it's been great for us.
This just scratches the surface & we want to say to every single person who backs us as a small business, We see you & you are more than just a customer to us
A special thanks to my mum, who comes and helps bake scones and slices in the morning just because & to the connections made with alike people in the community
If you made it to the end then damn, you're good!
