The Best Cake Spots in Brighton for Your Hen Weekend
Celebration cakes for the bride, afternoon tea for the group and a pastry run for the house: the Brighton cake spots our hen groups rate most
Cake is one of the things Brighton genuinely excels at, and a hen weekend hands you the perfect excuse to indulge. You might be after a showstopper to surprise the bride, a long afternoon tea where the gossip can breathe, or an early bakery run so a full box of pastries is waiting on the kitchen table when everyone surfaces. French patisserie by the station, Russian honey cake over in Hove and plenty in between: these are the spots we send our hen groups to.
On the map
10 of 10 on the map
Julien Plumart
Arriving by train? Julien Plumart sits on Queens Road just below the station, so the hen weekend can open with French patisserie before anyone has even seen the sea. Julien trained as a pastry chef in France and it shows: rows of glossy macarons in punchy, true flavours, and layered gateaux you will feel briefly guilty about cutting. The counter changes regularly, which means there is always something new worth photographing. Carry a box of macarons back to the house and the tone for the whole weekend is set.
Honey Cake by Mary
Nobody in the group will have tasted anything quite like this. Mary bakes Medovik, the traditional Russian honey cake, to a recipe passed down through her family: fine honey-cookie layers stacked with cream, finished with pistachio, raspberry or coffee under a rich ganache. At 4.9 stars from close to 150 reviews it carries the highest rating on this list, and nothing else in Brighton really compares. Two practicalities: the shop is over in Hove on Richardson Road, and it rewards ordering ahead, so make it the bride's cake and have it waiting back at the house.
Jacob's Bakery
Locals guard their loyalty to Jacob's, a North Laine bakery on Gloucester Place, and one visit explains why. The brownies come out rich and properly fudgy, the Victoria sponge is about as good as a Victoria sponge gets, and real care runs through everything on the counter. You wander in for a sourdough loaf and somehow leave holding a box of treats that were never part of the plan, which is exactly how a slow Saturday morning should go. Buy enough for the whole hen house and put the box in the middle of the kitchen table.
Cafe Marmalade
The interiors at Marmalade lean Parisian, and every table seems to be halfway through a photo shoot. Cakes are baked in-house alongside quiche and fresh salads, and the Guinness chocolate cake is the one people mention afterwards: dark, rich and worth every single calorie. Find it on Eastern Road in Kemptown, where dogs are welcome, the coffee is excellent and the breakfasts have a fan club of their own. More than 850 reviews back it up as the place to slow the hen party down for an hour.
Cloud 9
Save this one before the weekend even begins. Cloud 9 is an independent cake shop in the North Laine that makes its showstoppers by hand on the premises: towering rainbow cakes, cupcakes by the boxful and celebration cakes made to order. Arrange something personal for the bride in advance and the centrepiece of the big dinner is sorted before you arrive. No time to plan ahead? Drop in for coffee and a slice, or an ice cream when the sun is out.
Leman Tea Room
Afternoon tea as a proper occasion is the offer at Leman Tea Room, tucked away on Madeira Place in Kemptown. The setting is full of charm, the cakes are exceptional, and an hour here feels like an event rather than a pit stop, making it the rare daytime hen plan the bride and her mum will enjoy equally. At 4.9 stars from close to 400 reviews, it ranks among the best-rated sweet spots in the city. Book ahead for a group, then give yourselves a slow, indulgent hour between the bigger plans.
Neeko
Mid-wander through the Lanes, Neeko's window display on Duke Street will stop you in your tracks. This is a speciality coffee and cake shop with serious matcha credentials, and the bakes look every bit as good as they taste. There is even a reading nook where one hen can settle in with a slice while the committed shoppers press on. Nearly 270 reviews in a short space of time say the locals are already sold.
Cielo Cakery
Up on Stanford Avenue, Cielo Cakery treats baking as an art form. Expect cupcakes almost too polished to eat, celebration cakes built with genuine skill, and the signature cake jars, which double as lovely favours if you fancy something sweet at each place setting for the big dinner. A word for the vegan brownies too: dense, rich and convincing enough to fool the whole table, so the dairy-free hen is properly looked after. A detour here for a personal cake or a box of something special is time well spent.
Garden Cafe Brighton
Somehow the Garden Cafe on North Road still feels like a secret, even carrying 4.6 stars from more than 450 reviews. The cakes are fresh, the selection keeps changing, and the room has a homely warmth that makes a second coffee feel inevitable. When the hen group is threading through the North Laine mid-morning and the better-known cafes are heaving, this is where you slip away to. A gentle, unhurried cake stop that more than earns its place.
Trading Post Coffee
Ask a Brighton local where to get a flat white and Trading Post on Ship Street comes up fast, with more than 1,300 reviews to its name. The brownies are the other half of the story: dense, fudgy and made to sit beside a very good coffee. Being right in the Lanes, it is the natural pause point when half the hen party needs caffeine and the rest need sugar. Nothing flashy, never a letdown.
