Beloved North Melbourne cake shop Beatrix Bakes to close next month over pandemic ‘stress’

A beloved North Melbourne neighbourhood cake shop is closing for good next month after a two-year pandemic battering.

Beloved neighbourhood cake shop Beatrix Bakes is closing down after 12 years.

A beloved neighbourhood cake shop will close for good after a two-year pandemic battering.

North Melbourne’s Beatrix Bakes will serve sweet-toothed fans their final slice in early August, after founder and sole-trader Natalie Paull revealed the ‘relentless stress’ of the last two years had pushed her business to the brink.

Beatrix Bakes founder Natalie Paull with one of her sponge-cakes.

“While I adore my shop and have always had supportive and wonderful team around me, I run this cake house as a solo owner … and I think I need a hard beak after 12 years,” Paull said in a social media post on Wednesday.

Fear not, this isn’t the end of the cult cake house.

“Endings usually happen like a wall being thrown on our road out of nowhere. And you have no choice but to swerve or collide,” she said.

“But sometimes you get to drive your car to a nice lookout, turn the engine off (eat a chicken sandwich and sip a cup of tea from the thermos) and look so very proudly at where you are, how you got there and have a break from concentrating on the road. This is me doing just that. Just stopping for a moment.”

Beatrix Bakes became a household name after the release of its cookbook in 2020.

The tiny Queensberry St store is best-known for its out-the-door queues for its takeaway baked goods and coffee.

The popular North Melbourne cake shop has been around 12 years.