A 670g baby gave a Birmingham restaurant its name. In Hampshire, volunteer bakers give children their birthday cakes.
A Birmingham restaurateur spent an evening trying to place a familiar face at table one — the paediatrician who had helped keep his daughter alive — and in Hampshire, volunteer bakers cover the cost of birthday cakes for children whose families cannot.
The restaurant in Digbeth, Birmingham, is called 670 Grams, and the number is a birth weight. Kray Treadwell and Sacha Townsend's daughter arrived seven years ago at 23 weeks, weighing 670g. The couple opened the restaurant in 2020 and named it after her. 12
Both had worked in Michelin-starred kitchens, and they wanted a restaurant where that kind of cooking was within reach of ordinary pockets. "670 Grams is a restaurant to most, to us it's our home," they write on its website. 2
On the menu there is a pre-dessert called Tea and Toast. It exists because of what happens on the ward once mother and baby are safe: the mother gets tea and toast, and apparently it is the best she has ever tasted.
"So we try and savour that moment in the restaurant," Treadwell said. 1
The dish was already on the menu the evening Dr Richard Mupenamunda came in for dinner. He had never been to the restaurant. His son brought him there as a surprise for his wife's birthday, and he learned where they were going when they arrived. Treadwell met the party at the door, sure he knew one of the faces and unable to place it.
"It was seven years ago and there were many different doctors and nurses at the time as well," he said. "So all night it was flickering through my mind." 1
What broke it open was the pre-dessert. When the Tea and Toast reached table one, staff came back with the answer: the guest was a paediatrician.
"And then Sacha said, 'oh my God, it's Dr Richard,' and everything just clicked together in that moment," Treadwell said. 1
Mupenamunda had worked as a paediatrician at Heartlands Hospital, and had helped care for the couple's daughter on the neonatal ward. He had known nothing about the restaurant or its name.
"I had no idea, because you see so many parents coming through the unit," he said. "And then they said, Birmingham. It was Heartlands Hospital, my hospital. It was quite an amazing revelation." 1
The dish is the part I keep coming back to. It went on the menu long before the doctor walked in, and it is what turned a birthday dinner into a reunion.
670 Grams is in Digbeth and takes bookings through its own site.
A cake on the day itself
Free Cakes for Kids Fareham and Gosport exists for children whose families cannot put a birthday cake on the table. Its volunteers buy the ingredients out of their own pockets, bake at home, and deliver the finished cake themselves. 3
Natalie Parker joined as a baker during maternity leave in 2024, and now runs the group. Her own son was the prompt.
"I was on maternity leave with my son and just wanted something to occupy my brain a bit, so I took the plunge," she told BBC Radio Solent. "I can't imagine my own son not having a birthday cake. When I'm baking them, he says to me, 'Why don't they?' He can't, as a child, see why." 3
Referrals reach the group through food banks, churches and schools, and the requests are posted in a private Facebook group where volunteers take on the ones they can. Bakers often work to a brief, matching a child's favourite character or animal.
The volunteers cover the cost of the cake themselves, and the group chips in for toppers, boards and boxes when it has raised the money. "It's not cheap, especially with food costs going up," Parker said. "But it's a small price, for me and I know for our volunteers, to pay for that child getting a birthday cake that they otherwise wouldn't be able to have." 3
More than 30 bakers appear on the group's books, from people who make a cake or two a year to professionals with their own businesses. Demand has risen, and the group is asking for more. "You don't need to be an incredible baker to join us," Parker said. 3
Fareham and Gosport is one of a set of independent groups under the Free Cakes for Kids banner, which has been baking for families across the UK since 2008. Its groups bake for children aged 1 to 18, and referrals reach them through schools, food banks, hostels and charities. Bakers sign up to hygiene and confidentiality standards. 4
There is a directory of local groups if you want to find the one nearest you, and a get involved page if you bake.
References
- 1
- 2670 Grams
670grams.com
- 3
- 4Free Cakes for Kids UK
freecakesforkids.org.uk
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