Bolton’s Bella’s Bakes claim rival copied images and captions online

Cherelle White runs her business, Delight Bites, out of Radcliffe.

The 43-year-old regularly uploads photos of cakes and catering that she has done on social media in order to promote her business.

The mum-of-five said it was last year when a customer informed her that a rival baker in the Bury area had been using these photographs on her own page, claiming they were her own.

She said she blocked the user, Lou’s Cake Box, online so that this could not happen again and had not thought about the situation until Tuesday, April 14.

Cherella White, owner of Delight Bites (Image: Cherella White)

This was when a customer who had ordered a special cake, half decorated Manchester United themed and half decorated Manchester City themed, sent her a message to tell her she had spotted the picture of the cake being advertised on another page.

Cherella said she believed the baker had edited the picture so that the name on the cake had been changed.

She said: “It’s really deflating to be honest because obviously a lot of hard work goes into each and every cake that I make.

“I’m just wondering what customers who are ordering with her are actually getting, because if she’s not actually posting genuine work, I’m not sure what customers would be getting from her.

The picture of the half and half cake Cherella White alleges was copied (Image: Cherella White)

“Obviously, with us being small businesses and for somebody to be doing that, I think to be stealing your work and portraying it as their own is just it’s disgusting really.

“As a small, independent business, I put a huge amount of time, effort and passion into every order I create. Seeing my work used without permission is not only upsetting but also potentially damaging, as customers may believe they are ordering from me or receiving the same standard elsewhere.

“I felt it was important to raise awareness, not just for myself but for other small businesses that work incredibly hard to build their reputation honestly.

“I hope this encourages people to support genuine small businesses and to always check who they are ordering from.”

The picture of the cake Cherella White alleges has been copied (Image: Cherelle White)

After Cherella posted about the photos on her page, other bakers came forward in the comment section, claiming they had a similar experience with the same business.

Bella Bakes Bolton, owned by Bella Riding, claims the same baker copied the captions they shared on their social media posts.

Bella, 23, said she noticed last week that one of her captions had been copied and pasted by the baker and shared on its page to advertise products.

She said: “We only knew because we put on a heart cake and we said it was for a very bougie 10-year-old.

“I was reading her post, and at the bottom it says, a heart cake for a very bougie 10-year-old with a picture of a superhero cake she’d done.

“That’s kind of when we knew, right, she is copy and pasting.

“Which is really frustrating because we, as well as lots of other bakers, work hard on not only making the cakes, but then writing about the cakes.

“We never copy, don’t use Chat GPT or anything like that. It all comes from us.

“So to see someone else think, oh, I’ll just copy and paste that is really frustrating.”

Bella said she did not believe her images had been copied, but that it was sad to hear others might have been subjected to this.

She said: “It’s the hard work and effort that we bakers put into creating these cakes, and they’re all bespoke cakes as well.

“For someone to just then try and pass that off as their own, it’s quite disheartening, really.

“It’s really tight-knit. We all give each other advice, or if we’re not available to do cakes, we’ll pass them on to other bakers.

“So for that small minority to kind of be doing that ruins all the good that everybody else does.”

Hayley Comiskey-Harwood, owner of Comiskey’s Creations, claims the baker also copied her captions from social media.

A caption Comiskey’s Creations alleges has been copied (Image: Comiskey’s Creations)

The 39-year-old said she blocked the baker around six months ago after she realised this was happening.

Hayley said: “You create your work, you create your platform and your images and your cakes, which you do from scratch and then somebody else uses your content, it’s not very good really.

“She obviously doesn’t know how much damage she’s doing because, you know, at the end of the day, there are ideas which she’s stealing and we just come up with them ourselves.

“It’s hard, it’s a dog-eat-dog world, and at the end of the day, we’re all trying to make a living, and she’s posting things that she’s not come up with. I don’t think that’s very fair.”

She said from now on, she will be putting a watermark on the pictures she shares on her page.

Hayley added: “It’s frustrating because you work so hard to get where you are, and then you just see she is trying to shortcut to make her business established.

A caption Comiskey’s Creations alleges has been copied (Image: Facebook)

“Everyone’s got the right to run a business as long as it’s done properly, but when you’re resorting to copying and pasting people’s posts and stealing pictures, that’s just not on.”

Lou’s Cake Box was contacted by the Bury Times and declined to comment.

Greater Manchester Police were contacted.