THE new Wicked Cheesecake shop in Crossgates proved such a hit on its first day that it had to close early after selling more than 1,000 cakes!

The lip-smacking addition to Main Street only opened on Hallowe'en but the owners got a fright when sweet-toothed fans queued up to get in and then bought ALL of the stock.

As a result, it couldn't trade on Sunday and, after restocking and opening the doors on Monday, they sold out again!

Owner Jason Thirlwall said: "We only opened on Saturday and we had to shut two hours before we were supposed to as we'd sold out, that's over 1,000 cheesecakes.

"We were closed all day Sunday and opened again on Monday but it happened again!

"It was touching 500 cakes and they were all gone, it's been mental."

The Wicked Cheesecake business started online and became so popular during lockdown that Jason and his wife, Sam, decided to open a shop in Crossgates.

He laughed: "Before, we were doing 1,000 cheesecakes a week, we didn't expect to sell that much in a day!

"We thought that amount of cakes would last at least the weekend but it was absolutely constant, they were queueing up the hill outside.

"We had guys turning up from Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh too, we've built a lot of hype through our social media presence and word of mouth so we've have to make sure we live up to it.

"With the amount of cakes, colours and toppings in the display, it was all looking fantastic and it went in no time.

"It's great and we're delighted it's proved so popular but now we have to figure out how to manage something so busy."

Jason – who admitted to the Press last month that he didn't even like cheesecake initially – and Sam started the business but as they both have full-time jobs, he's also a DJ that's played around the world, the shop is being run by their friend, Lisa Galloway.

As well as cheesecakes, they're doing a roaring trade in ice creams and milkshakes and have already bolstered their workforce.

Jason said: "We're trying to figure out how to produce more cakes, we're trying to be quicker without crimping on the quality, we've now got a team of 12 so everyone is learning pretty quickly.

"The ice creams have been huge, we sold almost 200 litres on Saturday, and I even had the joiner helping with the milkshakes!"