Coronation Street actress Catherine Tyldesley breaks her silence after baker refused to make her 100 cakes for her birthday in return for exposure

Coronation Street star Catherine Tyldesley has hit back at a local bakery owner who refused to make her 100 cakes for her birthday in exchange for social media and magazine plugs.

Rebecca Severs, from Keighley, shared a Facebook post this week with a screenshot of an email exchange between her bakery and the PR company which represented an unidentified ‘well-known’ celebrity asking for a cake for a 40th birthday party in September. They also requested 100 cupcakes and an extra smaller birthday cake for her husband. 

The founder of Three Little Birds Bakery wrote: ‘This poor celebrity apparently can’t afford to pay people for their products and services. Spare a thought! What happened to women supporting women.’

The Mail revealed last night that the  party planners were in fact organising a 40th birthday bash for Catherine – and now the actress has hit back at the baker on her Instagram page.

Sharing a video this morning, she gave a thumbs up to the camera as she said: ‘Utterly bizarre. I don’t really know what to say. I mean I hope the cake lady got the exposure she was craving.’

Coronation Street star Catherine Tyldesley has hit back at a local bakery owner who refused to make her 100 cakes for her birthday in exchange for social media and magazine plugs

Rebecca Severs, from Keighley, won praise for her response to a company asking for a free birthday cake for Catherine 

Starting the video, the actress said: ‘Cake gate! WHAT!’ 

‘So I had no idea those emails were being sent. I’m not working with the lovely Ok magazine on anything that I’m aware of and NVRLND are an amazing company.

‘They’ve supplied me with performers in the past;. They’re insane and they’ve been completely misrepresented in this matter.’

She went on to brand the scandal ‘utterly bizarre’ and suggested Rebecca was ‘seeking exposure’ with her Facebook post sharing the email.  

The email from the celebrity management team, which was posted on Facebook by Rebecca this week, read: ‘We are organising a 40th Birthday Party for a well-known celebrity on the 1st of September 2023 in Manchester.

‘In return for being a supplier for the event, payment would be made in the form of promotion on their socials with over 700K followers, as well as promoted on OK Magazine. 

‘They will be crediting all the suppliers on these platforms.’

It continued: ‘The party has a guest list full of celebrities and industry people from tv/film and music, so loads of work would come from it.’

The email went on to outline that the birthday theme has been designed with ‘pinks, sparkles and a touch of flamingos’.

They then requested one birthday cake with the theme ‘camp as tits’, as well as 100 cupcakes.

Finally, they asked for another, smaller, birthday cake because ‘it’s actually her husband’s birthday that day and we wanted to surprise him.’ 

Photographer Tom Pitfield, turns 37 on the day of the Manchester bash. 

In return, the small bakery would be rewarded ‘in the form of promotion on their [the celeb’s] socials with over 700k followers, as well as promoted in OK Magazine,’ while the party promised ‘a guest lists full of celebrities and industry people from TV / film and music, so loads of work would come from it’.

The Mail revealed last night that the party planners were organising a 40th birthday bash for Catherine – and now the actress has hit back at the baker on her Instagram page

Coronation Street actress Catherine Tyldesley has been revealed as the star involved in a free birthday cake PR controversy with an artisan bakery

The list of requests included a main cake to fit in with the theme of ‘pinks, sparkles and a touch of flamingos’, a separate cake for Tydesley’s husband, photographer Tom Pitfield (pictured together, above), who turns 37 on the day of the Manchester bash

Ms Severs, 37, did not know it was the former Strictly star and mum-of-two she would be providing for but it mattered not.

And in posting her pithy response to social media, she has won herself a new army of fans.

Replying to Leeds-based party planners NVRLND, Ms Severs confirmed she had availability but jokingly said: ‘I’m so sorry to hear that your client has fallen on such hard times they can’t afford to pay small businesses their products.

‘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.’

The bakery was met with a wave of support for the post, with one person commenting: ‘Best response! Good for sticking to your guns!’

Meanwhile another added: ‘Good for you!’

A third wrote: ‘Love it!’

A fourth commented: ‘Got yourself a new follower here, purely because this response is exactly the level of business like sarcasm I aspire to. Fab response.’

Another person wrote: ‘We have this a lot. Influencers are very frustrating and most expect everything for free.

‘It happens more often than people know. Like you say, exposure doesn’t pay the mortgage.’

Days later, the bakery put another post up on social media saying they have now been ‘threatened’ with legal action and added: ‘I’ve now been threatened with legal action by….as a response to this post which they say is encouraging defamation of their business.’  

The bakery’s Facebook page last night said: ‘Hi to all our new followers. We deal in delicious cakes and a generous side of sarcasm when necessary.

‘We are getting a massive amount of phone calls, emails and messages as a result of the media coverage of the news story that is us refusing to work for heart emojis.

‘We are blown away by all your support and so happy to see that so many other people agree that small business shouldn’t be taken advantage of!’

And speaking to local station Rombalds Radio, Rebecca said: ‘It’s really important to highlight the issue of small businesses, especially in female-dominant industries, not earning a fair wage for their time and skill, especially in the cost-of-living crisis we are experiencing.

The email claimed to be from the management company of a ‘well-known celebrity’ who was having a 40th birthday party 

Rebecca emailed the company back, explaining that she would be declining the ‘very generous offer’

‘We are proud of our team who are all highly skilled at cake baking and decorating, and proud to have built a successful business based on correct pricing which means our staff are paid a decent wage and have job stability.

‘We wish the same for NVRLND and offer them and their clients our best regards for the future.’

Last night a different cake baker, who wanted to remain anonymous, told the Mail that they had also been passed on the opportunity to make cakes for the same party planners.

The small business owner confirmed that the request was for Ms Tyldesley’s 40th birthday party.

Best known for playing Eva Price on Weatherfield’s famous cobbles for seven years until 2018, Ms Tyldesley, has starred in BBC sitcom Scarborough and appeared on Strictly Come Dancing in 2019.

The star is very active on social media which she regularly uses to promote brands, businesses and products.

Many Facebook users heaped praise on Rebecca for the comment, saying it was ‘good’ for the baker

Online, Rebecca is described as leaving her career as an editor in legal publishing after welcoming three daughters before setting up her business

In a statement, Leeds-based event management firm NVRLND said its email had been ‘completely misconstrued’.

Founder Victoria Eames said: ‘NVRLND contacted Three Little Birds Bakery to offer them the opportunity to collaborate with one of our clients to cater for a party.

‘As part of the collaboration, our client would cover all of Three Little Birds Bakery’s expenses and costs in exchange for social media content and local and national exposure for their business. To confirm, NVRLND are also retained on the same expenses-only basis.

‘We selected Three Little Birds Bakery to collaborate with a view to support a local business and help them grow.

‘Our aim is to connect small local businesses with the opportunity of growth and the possibility of a full diary which is what we have experienced when working on past collaborations. We would never expect any business to be out of pocket and nor would our client.

‘Our email communication to Three Little Birds has unfortunately been completely misconstrued.

‘Due to contractual obligations, we are unable to comment on the identity of our client.’

Ms Tyldesley’s agent did not return request for comment. Last night, Mr Pitfield insisted he knew nothing about the cake controversy or if his wife was involved.