If you are living in Selly Oak and are yet to order from Waffle Me Up, you are truly missing out. Set up during lockdown back in 2020, Oli and Raffy spotted a gap in the market for mouth-watering desserts that could be delivered straight to your door – the perfect way to satisfy your sweet tooth without leaving the house. I had a chat with Oli about his experiences of providing cookie dough and waffles to the students of Birmingham.

Tell me a bit about yourselves – who are the people behind Wafflemeup? 

It was set up by myself, and my friend Raffy, we are both students at university doing businessy-type degrees – so I’m doing business management and he’s doing economics. We’re from London, we’ve been best mates for years – that’s pretty much it!

What was the inspiration for setting up your business? 

So the inspiration was that I’d seen a lot of people set up their own businesses doing bakery stuff and biscuits and cakes and muffins. I knew there was a gap in the market for something in desserts, but I didn’t want it to be something you ordered and got in a week – I wanted it to be like you saw a chocolatey waffle and could get it that evening. So I wanted to set up a restaurant, and I knew no one had done waffles and cookie dough – it’s quite a niche dessert, but everyone loves it, so that was how I came up with the idea of the waffles. My girlfriend was pushing me to start it and telling me to get out there and create a business, and in the area and community where we live in there were no good dessert shops, so that was why there was a gap for that and we were able to provide desserts to the community.

What does an average evening running Waffle Me Up look like for you? How many orders do you get on the average evening?

A regular evening looks like this – so 19:30 I start prepping, all the chocolates, Nutella, white chocolate is all in its packaging, so that keeps it fresh. The mixture is made for the cookie dough and waffles fresh on the day, in the evening, and those are then put in the fridge. All the sides are then prepped, cleaned, covered, and the ovens are turned on. All the boxes are made, because they come packaged flat, so we make them up, then we get ready to go out around 8. On average we get a lot of orders towards the end of the night, but they’re kind of consistent throughout the night. The amount of orders depends on the night, but we can have anywhere from 15-20 to 30-40 depending on the night. 

That’s a lot of orders to fit into one night! Are you students? If so, how has it been keeping up a business like this alongside your studies? 

I am a student, and it’s been tough managing every single day, because it’s not just the prep, its also buying all the ingredients, going to the shops and getting the strawberries fresh, and obviously the milk and eggs have got to be fresh. So the fresh produce usually means I go to the shops once a day, and the chocolate stuff every other day to buy more Freddo bars, or more Nutella jars, or more Twirl bites, that kind of stuff. It’s hard to balance it, but with the right mind-set and discipline, I’m able to do it. 

How has it been running a business during a pandemic? 

The business only started during a pandemic! It’s been amazing, because a lot of people have been on social media a lot more, which means our videos and our marketing get seen a lot more by people, because everyone’s on their phones 24/7. It’s also allowed us to grow because people wanted something new, and no one’s really spending any money, so being able to get them to buy waffles was a great idea. It obviously worked out quite well, thankfully!

What are your most popular products? For me, there is only one right order – cookie dough! Do your customers agree?

The most popular product is cookie dough – but waffles are still up there. Our bestseller is our regular cookie dough, and then the Nutella Oreo waffle is the second bestseller. So people love the cookie dough, but they also love the waffles… I guess with cookie dough it’s something that isn’t very easy to make on your own, whereas with a waffle quite a few people might have a waffle maker at home.

What’s your favourite thing about running the business? 

My favourite thing about running the business is giving people the products and getting messages from people saying they loved it, and that the had the nicest waffle they’ve ever had and saying they’ll order again. That’s the best thing, making people happy. 

And your least favourite?

I’d say the least favourite thing is when you’ve had a long uni day and you have to go home and set up and run Waffle Me Up. It can be hard, it can be tiring, it can be mentally draining, but as long as you keep grinding through it that’s the main thing. But that can be hard sometimes. 

What foodie spot are you most looking forward to running back to in Brum, when it’s all back open? 

To be fair, We’re not crazy big foodies, but the place we probably want to go back to is just the general New Street area – all the different restaurants, and bars like the Alchemist, having food and drinks there. It’s just the ability to browse and not have the same takeaways every time – that will be the best thing when lockdown ends. 

The most important question of all – are you team cookie dough or team waffle? 

I’m team cookie dough – or both, I’m ranking both very highly. I think they hit very different spots. If I’m feeling like having a very indulgent, lovely, hot thing, then I’ll go for a cookie dough, and if I want to have something slightly more savoury, a bit more filling, with different toppings, I’ll go for a waffle any day of the week. 

Finally – what’s next for Waffle Me Up? I saw you introduced pancakes for pancake day – is there any chance of this becoming a regular thing, or are there any new toppings on the horizon?

So at the moment with expansion, because of where we’re making everything from, from our uni kitchen, it is difficult to expand because we don’t have the facilities and space. The crepes we are hopefully keeping on the menu for good, but we’d love to add new things, so keep your eyes peeled for what will come in the future. 

If we’ve got you craving something sweet, place your orders here! https://www.wafflemeup.co.uk/

Waffle Me Up are open to orders from 8pm-12am Saturday to Friday.

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