Competition success for recently opened Steyning café

Victoria’s Sponge, at 116 High Street, is owned and run by Victoria Nicks who specialises in making a wide range of delicious homemade cakes, including gluten-free and vegan.

Word has spread fast around Steyning about Victoria’s cakes, with the cafe being extremely busy with both eat-in and people coming to buy a takeaway slice to enjoy with their afternoon cup of tea.

Victoria’s breakfast and lunch menu also caters for vegan, gluten and dairy free, all made with fresh healthy ingredients.

Popular choices include avocado bruschetta on the breakfast menu. For lunch there are delicious sandwiches which can be toasted including chicken, pesto and cheese, tuna melt, or tomato and mozzarella. or you can go for one of the salads such as Moroccan chickpea, tuna or greek feta.

Victoria uses fresh, quality ingredients sourced locally where she can. Her prophecy with the café is ‘eat fresh, shop local, fill tummy and soul!’

You can look up the cakes of the day and find out more by looking up her Facebook page Victoria’s Sponge Steyning, or call Victoria on 01903 814517. The café is open 9am-5pm every day.

On achieving runner-up status, Victoria said: “I am amazed to have come second in my first year of business, especially with the current climate and lockdowns. The community has supported me so much with voting and queueing in the rain just to get a slice of one of my cakes.

“All my customers are just so lovely, I am so humbled and proud that they love coming to me. Thank you to everyone for your support.”

Our second runner-up in the Café of the Year competition was Toat Café in Pulborough, a long-established family run cafe with a hand car wash on site.

Toat Café has been in the Macari family for decades and is still run by the family now.

It has been a well-established breakfast stop off and people love the burgers and hot homemade meals as well.

There is now a new addition to the menu – owner Maggie’s son Tommy now makes handmade wood fired pizzas which are all freshly baked on the premises in the wood fire pizza oven.

Until December 31, Tommy is offering buy one get one free on pizza takeaway collection, or he can deliver pizzas locally.

To order, call Tommy 07552 446708 or look up and message him on his Facebook page Margherita’s Authentic Pizza.

For Christmas, to bring festive cheer after a depressing year, the family have booked and are running a Christmas Drive-In cinema night week with Dusk & Duchy events, where you can book to come and watch a festive film in the car park between December 18-23. Cost is £25 per car with two showings per night at 4pm or 7pm.

There will be popcorn and the café and pizza oven will be open and fired up, so it is a great festive evening out for the family. Films planned include The Polar Express, Frozen, The Holiday and many others. To find out more or book your car park slot call the Toat Café on 01798 875557 or visit www.duskduchyevents.com

To find out who won the Café of the Year competition in the Horsham district, click here