Young bakery owner and Instagram star in emotive plea to customers as ingredients TREBLE in cost

A young business owner has urged people to shop local to help small business owners weather the cost of living crisis after some of her costs more than TRIPLED over the last few months.

Isabel Maidens, 23, opened up the Isabakes shop in Ormerod Street, Rawtenstall, in March last year, after baking out of her dad’s kitchen for several months. The Instagram star, who built up a large following over lockdown by sharing pictures of the gorgeous treats she had for sale, has had a lot of success over the last year-and-a-half, but the rising cost of living has caused a lot of stress for the young business owner.

Over the last few months, the cost of some ingredients have more than tripled, with significant rises on other products boosting costs even higher, whilst fewer people head into the shop as the cost of living leaves people with less money to spend on the treat items at Isabakes. The difficult situation led to Miss Maidens uploading a video to her social media pages, telling her customers about the rising costs she was facing to encourage people to shop local and support other business owners who were also feeling the pinch.

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In the video, Miss Maidens said the cost of cocoa powder has risen from £78 a bag to a whopping £237 - over three times the price. Sticks of butter have also risen in price by £1 a stick, which due to its position as one of the bakery’s main ingredients has a huge knock-on effect on operating costs. However, the team at Isabakes don’t want to increase their prices as they know customers are also feeling the effects of rising costs - and don’t want to drive customers away to cheaper stores like