decent packaging

It’s been five months of Heppni Bakeri and they’ve already truly cemented themselves in the York pastry scene. We spoke with the lovely India about that special feeling people get as they walk through Heppni’s doors, and how they choose those ridiculously tasty flavours.

Hey India, congratulations on five months of Heppni! We would love to know - what’s your background in hospitality, and how did Heppni begin?

I worked in hospo from when I was about 13 years old - it’s what I’ve always done! I then started baking when I was 21 (as a lockdown thing) and a friend then asked me to help her make coffee and run her cafe. Not much later she went on maternity leave and realising she needed someone to run the place - I got the call up! She gave me a crash course in baking and then it was really up to me. I quickly learnt that if you practice it, you’ll get better at it! 

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go out and do my own thing, but I realised that a bakery is the perfect marriage of my two loves - people and pastries. Since that I’ve been to bakeries all over the world to get inspiration, and see how I could do my own. 

I also love working with people - my favourite part of the job is always getting to meet new people, having a constant stream of old faces and new faces come through the door. I get to meet so many people, from all walks of life - I don’t think there’s many jobs like that. 

Now at Heppni we’ve had over 17,000 people visit, with really long queues on the weekends. I absolutely love it.

What do you want people to feel as they walk into Heppni… and how do you want them feeling when they walk out? 

I always say I want it to feel like a warm hug when they walk in to Heppni. The space is literally warm, and our pastel orange is a warm colour to help evoke that feeling - this is a Portuguese influence. The colour makes me feel good, so I hope it makes other people feel good!

And all I want is for people to leave with a huge smile on their face, knowing they’ve had a really enjoyable experience.



It can’t have been all easy setting up shop! Did you have any major hiccups, or were there any times where you thought ‘this is all just too difficult’?

To be honest, no. Yes of course it was tough, but I had a lot of support from family and friends who helped me deal with any problems that arose. If you surround yourself with the right, supportive people, you’ll be able to figure it out. 

And anything that’s really good, doesn’t come easily!

What does sustainability mean to you, and how do you promote sustainability at Heppni?

We go through a LOT of pastry. The nature of pastry is that when you’re laminating (repeatedly folding and rolling butter into dough to create many thin layers), you get a lot of off-cuts. Many bakeries just bin these, but we re-work and find a new purpose for it - like cruffins and croissant pudding. Sometimes these are the most popular things on our menu!

Your pastries look INSANE. How do you choose what to bake each week and where do you draw inspiration from?

We have our classics - almond croissants, pain au chocolates, cinnamon buns - things everyone recognises. But then we also mix it up - my other pastry chef Mark has a chef background and brings interesting twists on different flavours ie. tiramisu pastry, banoffee pie pastry - we love to mix desserts into our pastries. 
It’s important to keep changing your menu to keep regular customers interested, and give people something to try that they haven’t tried before.

What’s one fabulous spot or thing to do in York that people might not know about (apart from visiting Heppni!)?

In our bakery, we have a recommendations board to give tourists ‘local’s’ recommendations. 

My number one would be the Shambles Market - there’s a food truck there called Goldee’s Bagels. He makes the most unbelievable filled bagels. It’s a small menu, he makes the bagels, the fillings, all his own sauces, and does his own pickling. We all get lunch here. 

For a really, really lovely glass of wine - a bar called Pairings. Hence the name, they pair your chosen glass of wine with a delicious bar snack. 

Make sure you check out Heppni Bakeri on Instagram here!