THE Hub tea room in Ely certainly lives up to its name - its at the hub of city life and provides a cosy and welcoming venue for customers enjoying snacks, or attending language classes and sugar craft sessions.

Run by owners Yvonne and Chris O’Neill, the Hub is also the home of Yellow Butterfly Cake Design, which creates everything from fabulous wedding cakes to thousands of cup cakes for May Balls at Cambridge University.

The couple have run the tea shop for about nine months. Yvonne said: “We are really enjoying the business, we meet such lovely people, and we want everyone to feel there is a welcome here for them.”

Yvonne and her staff bake all their own cakes, buns and scones on the premises; they serve drinks using pretty mismatched china, and their tables are bedecked with white embroidered table cloths. They serve a range of speciality teas and coffees, and a range of soft drinks .

Tasty Corkers crisps - made by a company based in Pymoor - are also stocked. Yvonne said: “We made a conscious decision to stock local produce as much as possible. We very much agree with the Ely Standard’s campaign to “Keep it Local” and we are determined to be very much part of the community.”

The Hub - which shares a building with the Lighthouse Church in Lynn Road - hosts language classes each Tuesday morning . Yvonne also runs sugar craft classes on a Tuesday evening, and the tea shop sells a range of sugar craft accessories and decorations.

Yvonne also runs Sugar in the Isles, a sugarcraft guild that meets monthly at The Hub, welcoming guest speakers.

In October, Yvonne hopes that royal baker Eddie Spence, MBE, will give a talk on the premises. Eddie baked the wedding cake for Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, and the Queen’s golden wedding anniversary cake. There are also plans for a tea dance later in the year.

Last year, Yvonne and former staff member Donna Bright worked through the night to create 2,000 cup cakes and 1,500 biscuits for Downing College’s May Ball in Cambridge, and next month they will be staging a showcase of wedding cakes at St John’s College.

Yvonne and husband Chris are a member of the Lighthouse church next door, but Yvonne said: “We called the tea shop the Hub, standing for “a home for unbelievers.” We want everyone to feel welcome here, whatever their faith. If anyone needs prayer, we will take them into the church.”