A Darwen bakery which grew after supporting people during covid has been nominated for the Lancashire Telegraph’s Best Bakery 2024.

The Crown and Thistle, on Blackburn Road, is owned by Julie and Morteza Zabhi and opened in 2021 after finding that their cakes were so loved when running a delivery service supporting elderly people who couldn’t access food due to lockdown.

Their stand-out cakes became a quick hit with locals with favourites including the 11-inch éclair and the strawberry puff.

Morteza said: “If we win it would be great and we would be very happy as I imagine there are quite a lot of good bakeries around.

“We weren’t expected to be shortlisted it was something we didn’t think people would take us that seriously.

“Everything we make is on the premises and homemade and that is what makes our cakes stand out. We get a great response from all our customers.”

They try to approach food in a modern way while staying true to traditional baking routes and not moving to mass production with most of their items selling out on the day they are made.

READ MORE: 10 finalists in the Lancashire Telegraph's 'Best Bakery 2024' competition revealed

With a staff of more than 20 people, they have struggled to manage with the cost-of-living crisis.

Morteza added: “The problem we have got is because we don’t want to go to automation and keeping it traditional and you need more and more resources.

“These things are going on and it is easy to whinge and moan but, at the end of the day, we have to get on with it and find a solution to sort it out.

“It comes down to all our fantastic staff and they work really hard to keep the team going.”

And their popularity continued to grow at Bolton Food and Drink Festival over the bank holiday weekend, with a constant queue outside their stall and Mo admits they weren’t prepared for the number of customers who visited their stand.

The couple have recently taken over the British Queen and turned it into a café moving the cake side of their operation there whilst having their pie side of the business run from the site of the Crown and Thistle.

Further finalists in the ‘Best Bakery 2024’ competition will be profiled in the coming days. Readers can vote by picking up copies of the Lancashire Telegraph until Saturday, September 14, with the winner announced the week commencing September 23.​