When Kat O’Reilly baked cookies for her five-year-old’s birthday party, she began a journey that would see her crowned Baker of the Year in the 2026 Farm Shop & Deli Retailer Awards.
O’Reilly, who worked in the English hospitality industry for 17 years before moving to Northern Ireland, is the founder of Nice Buns. The County Armagh bakery specialises in handmade cakes, cookies and sweet treats, with a product range including celebration cakes, cupcakes and brownies. Alongside bespoke orders, Nice Buns sells through local artisan markets and stockists, and operates a popular honesty box cake hut.
While a modest-sized business with no plans for major expansion, Nice Buns impressed the Farm Shop & Deli Retailer Awards judges for the quality of its products and O’Reilly’s enthusiasm. “This is an adorable business that makes you smile,” declared one judge.
“O’Reilly is a very talented young baker working hard and with passion, and it is clear how much she values relationships, both with her customers and her suppliers.”
She was inspired to start Nice Buns in February 2024, after making paint-your-own cookies as party bag gifts for her son’s birthday. Recognising a gap in the local market – and that baking would enable her to work from home and be around her two young children – she set about developing recipes and packaging.
After the initial success of her cookies, O’Reilly went on to expand the range to include celebration cakes and traybakes. “I found brownies and cakes at markets increased my takings up to 400%,” she says.
“My skills have also developed with celebration cakes. I’m now confident enough to offer wedding cakes and even made a celebration cake for Tayto crisps’ 70th anniversary.”
As noted by the awards’ judges, O’Reilly has developed strong relationships with her customers. “I know my regulars by name and show my appreciation to my returning customers with discounts and freebies, and often run giveaways on social media,” she says.
She makes the majority of goods herself, while outsourcing production of gluten-free products to a local baker. “I use quality local ingredients where possible, and do not add extra additives and preservatives to my bakes. I make an effort to ensure they not only taste amazing but support the ethos that ‘more is more’ – add more chocolate, more toppings, more fillings.”
When it comes to those ingredients, O’Reilly uses local suppliers where she can. These include Northern Irish butter and cream, Nearynógs dark chocolate made in the Mourne Mountains, local free-range eggs, and jams and lemon curd from fellow County Armagh business Peggy’s Family Farm.
“It’s important to me to reduce food miles and to financially support other small businesses and keep my money within the local economy,” explains O’Reilly. “Sustainability is important to me as I used to duty manage an environmental award-winning hotel, so am aware of the impact of excessive waste and know how to limit this where possible.”
Nice Buns expanded in March 2025 with the launch of the Bleary Cake Hut, a small honesty box outside O’Reilly’s home in Bleary. “I took inspiration from cake honesty boxes in America, with the trend just starting out in the UK, and am proud to be the first in Craigavon and one of the first in Northern Ireland,” she says.
In October, the hut expanded into a larger shed offering around 350 individual bakes each week. It is stocked on Friday afternoons and open throughout the day and evening over Friday, Saturday and Sunday, until it sells out.
“My focus when designing the Cake Hut was to ensure it was eye-catching from the road, painting it pink to match my business branding, and using floral wreaths and fairy lights during dark evenings so that passers-by will stop to look,” says O’Reilly.
Most of her customers are weekly visitors who follow on social media, she adds, and the hut often has queues of cars on a Friday.
O’Reilly’s following is continuing to grow after she was named Baker of the Year. She feels the award gives new customers the confidence to place orders with her. “I’m so proud to have my Baker of the Year signage in my window for collection and in my social media bios. This was my first-ever award for Nice Buns and made me really feel like all the hard work is worth it.”
That hard work is set to grow as O’Reilly is in the process of purchasing a horse box coffee van, with the aim of reducing traffic at the hut and upselling coffees and other drinks alongside the bakes.
“I’m hoping to have a weekly pitch on a Friday and also take it to markets and local events on a weekend so it will allow me to boost the presence of Nice Buns,” she says. “At that point I may have to take on my first member of staff, though unofficially my mum helps with packing for the cake hut and joins me at markets.”
Besides the coffee cart, O’Reilly is not currently looking to expand the business further and believes it is important to stay relatively small rather than risk compromising the quality of the products. “This will never happen with Nice Buns,” she declares. “I’m known for my high-quality offerings and want to keep the business small and humble to maintain this.”
No comments yet