Senior Pastry Sous Chef – Cakes & Sweet Bakery

Role Overview We are seeking a commercially strong, hands-on Senior Pastry Sous Chef – Cake & Sweet Bakery to lead the development, production, finishing, and quality of premium cakes across our growing multi-brand F&B portfolio. The successful candidate will have strong end-to-end technical experience producing layer cakes, loaf cakes, cheesecakes, celebration cakes, cupcakes, traybakes, retail cakes, and seasonal cake ranges. They will also support the production and development of complementary sweet bakery items, including doughnuts, muffins, cookies, brownies, blondies, filled buns, tarts, pies, and choux pastry products. This is a senior operational and commercial role for a pastry professional who can develop attractive products, cost them accurately, standardise recipes, scale production, manage shelf life and packaging, lead a team, and ensure consistency across retail counters, cake shops, coffee-shop concepts, Central Production Unit (CPU) activity, and multiple sites. This is not solely a creative or bespoke cake-decorating role. The successful candidate must combine premium cake-making and finishing skills with strong operational discipline, high-volume production capability, food-cost awareness, and the ability to build systems that support scalable growth. Key Responsibilities Cake Development & Production • Lead the development, production, assembly, decoration, finishing, and quality control of premium cakes. • Produce and supervise layer cakes, loaf cakes, cheesecakes, celebration cakes, cupcakes, traybakes, retail cakes, seasonal cakes, and limited-edition product ranges. • Take ownership of the full cake-production process, including sponge and base preparation, fillings, creams, mousses, buttercreams, frostings, ganaches, curds, glazes, chocolate elements, assembly, masking, icing, piping, decoration, and final presentation. • Ensure all cakes meet approved standards for taste, texture, moisture, structure, portion size, finish, decoration, packaging, and display presentation. • Develop cakes that are commercially viable, visually appealing, operationally practical, and appropriate for premium café, bakery, cake-shop, and retail environments. • Support the creation of seasonal, festive, promotional, and launch-specific cake ranges. Sweet Bakery & Supporting Products • Oversee the production and quality of supporting sweet bakery products, including raised, filled, glazed, and decorated doughnuts. • Produce and supervise muffins, cookies, brownies, blondies, bars, iced buns, filled sweet buns, tarts, pies, individual pastries, choux buns, profiteroles, and éclairs. • Maintain high standards across pastry creams, custards, fillings, toppings, glazes, ganaches, chocolate work, piping, and decoration. • Ensure all sweet bakery products are suitable for retail display, takeaway, delivery, and multi-site distribution where required. • Support product trials and menu refinements based on guest feedback, outlet feedback, sales performance, and seasonal opportunities. Product Development & Standardisation • Support the Head Pastry Chef / Executive Pastry Chef with the creation of commercially viable cake and sweet bakery product ranges. • Develop, test, refine, cost, and standardise recipes for permanent menus, new concepts, seasonal ranges, festive collections, promotions, and product launches. • Create accurate recipe packs, method sheets, batch specifications, portion guides, allergen information, storage instructions, and finishing standards. • Convert development recipes into scalable, repeatable formats suitable for CPU and multi-site production. • Ensure products can be reproduced consistently by different teams, across multiple locations, without compromising quality or brand standards. • Develop and maintain SOPs for mixing, baking, cooling, assembling, decorating, packing, labelling, freezing, thawing, transportation, and site-level finishing. Quality, Shelf Life & Packaging • Own quality control for assigned cake and sweet bakery categories before products are displayed, dispatched, delivered, or served. • Check flavour, texture, structure, bake quality, moisture, portioning, decoration, packaging, product integrity, and counter presentation. • Develop practical standards for shelf life, storage, chilling, freezing, thawing, holding, transportation, and site-level finishing. • Ensure products are packaged, labelled, stored, and transported in a manner that protects product quality, food safety, and premium presentation. • Monitor products through storage and display periods, identifying quality issues and implementing corrective actions promptly. • Work with Operations, Brand, and Procurement teams to improve product durability, display readiness, packaging effectiveness, and guest experience. Commercial, Cost & Waste Control • Ensure all cake and sweet bakery products are accurately costed and support agreed gross-profit targets. • Monitor food cost, ingredient usage, batch yields, portion sizes, production quantities, sales patterns, and wastage. • Maintain careful control of high-value ingredients, including butter, dairy, chocolate, nuts, fruit, fillings, decorations, and packaging. • Identify opportunities to improve margin through recipe refinement, production efficiency, accurate yield control, reduced overproduction, supplier optimisation, and waste reduction. • Support stock forecasting, ordering, receiving, stock rotation, and ingredient availability. • Maintain accurate production, wastage, yield, and recipe-update records. Team Leadership & Training • Supervise, coach, train, and support pastry and bakery team members assigned to cake and sweet bakery production. • Plan daily section workflow, allocate tasks, manage production priorities, and ensure output targets are completed on time. • Train team members on approved recipes, cake assembly, decoration, finishing, food safety, hygiene, portion control, and quality standards. • Conduct regular quality checks and provide clear, practical feedback to develop team capability and consistency. • Support recruitment trials, onboarding, performance follow-up, and skills development within the pastry and bakery team. • Take ownership of section operations in the absence of the Head Pastry Chef / Executive Pastry Chef, where required. • Build a clean, organised, disciplined, and accountable production culture. Display, Merchandising & Multi-Site Support • Ensure all cakes and sweet bakery products meet premium visual standards for cake shops, bakery counters, coffee shops, retail displays, takeaway, delivery, and events. • Work with Operations and Brand teams on display standards, counter presentation, product merchandising, packaging, labelling, promotional activity, and launches. • Support pre-opening preparation, product tastings, menu trials, training, counter setup, and early-trading stabilisation. • Work closely with CPU, site pastry teams, café teams, kitchen operations, Procurement, and Brand to ensure products are delivered consistently. • Support site teams with product training, finishing standards, handling procedures, and opera