What is 'cake gate?' The viral scandal involving ex-Coronation Street star explained

A British actress has hit back amid controversy over free birthday cakes in a now-viral scandal dubbed “cake gate”.

The row arose when an email exchange posted on Facebook went viral across social media. It appeared to show an events company approaching Three Little Birds Bakery in Keighley, asking them to provide free cakes for the 40th birthday of a “well-known celebrity” in exchange for “promotion”.

The celebrity was later named as the Mancunian actress and former Coronation Street star Catherine Tyldesley.

The theme of the party was to be “camp as t**s” and would require the bakery to provide a 40th birthday cake, 100 cupcakes and a smaller cake for Tyldesley’s husband, for free.

The email sent to the bakery explained: “In return for being a supplier at the event, payment would be in the form of promotion on their socials with over 700k followers, as well as promoted [sic] in OK magazine.”

Rebecca Severs, the owner of the bakery, did not hold back in her response, pointing out that exposure and promotion do not pay mortgages.

She wrote: “Unfortunately as my mortgage provider doesn't take payment ‘in the form of promotion on their socials’, and my staff can't feed their kids with exposure on Instagram, I'll have to decline your very generous offer.”

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Severs was widely praised for her response, with people stunned by the audacity of such a request.

“Excellent. I’m sure said ‘celeb’ would be happy to receive payment in the same way, as obviously, they wouldn’t want to be a hypocrite….,” one person wrote.

Someone else said: “Love that Three Little Birds Bakery is currently getting more publicity & good PR from politely telling these d**ks to go f**k themselves than they'd ever have got from the gig.”

Following the email exchange going viral, Severs claimed in a Facebook post that she was being “threatened with legal action by NVRLND”.

But there was another twist to “cake gate” after Tyldesley hit back, appearing to slam the bakery in a video on her Instagram.

In the clip, Tyldesley claimed she had “no idea” the events company were sending the emails and denied she was working with OK! Magazine.

But, she continued: “I mean I hope the cake lady got the exposure she was craving, whilst I’ve got journalists knocking on my front door whilst my kids are playing in the front room.”

The founder of NVRLND, Victoria Eames, told the Daily Mail: “We would never expect any business to be out of pocket and nor would our client.”

Meanwhile, Three Little Birds Bakery wrote in an update: “We are incredibly psyched about all our new followers and want to emphasise that making you beautiful and delicious cakes remains our priority.

“That and standing up for small businesses and people who need to pay gas bills, obvs.”

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