Food & Drink Awards 2018

Page 74 www.lux-review.com LUX 2018 Food & Drink Awards Wow Cake Company develops and produces cake and pastry mixes that are gluten, wheat and nut free. We spoke to Founder Susan Craddock to find out more on how she developed the company drawing on her own personal experience. Wow Cake Company Best Gluten Free Cake Company – UK & Excellence Award in Ethical Ingredient Sourcing 2018 On a restricted diet herself, Susan founded Wow Cake Company after she saw a gap in the market for flavoursome gluten free baking mixes. She provides us with an overview of how she came to create the company and how far it has come over the years. “Personally, I have been on a gluten free diet since 2012. Coeliac disease runs in my family so having to change my diet after so long was easier that I thought it would be. But saying that, trying to find cake and pastry that was not dry or tasteless was much harder. So, I decided to make my own. “As such, five years ago I spent months working on the recipes and in 2015 I founded Wow Cake Company. My mission has always been to produce wheat and gluten free products that are so good you can share them with your family and nobody will know they are gluten free. This is even more important now that the NHS has started withdrawing the availability of gluten free food on prescription – coeliacs are looking for quality products to make at home. We have three mixes available to date: Sponge, Carrot Cake and Chocolate Brownie with a couple more projects in the pipeline. Our customers include wholesalers for the service industry, we are stocked in Booths Supermarkets and Ocado, as well as Keelham Farm Shops, as well as a couple of small outlets in Ireland.” Thanks to her own personal experience, Susan is able to create unique products that meet her clients’ needs, as she highlights. “As I have a unique insight into the problems of coeliac baking, with a family background of over 30 years living with coeliac disease, unlike many other companies creating ‘free from’ products, and as such our products are unique in the market and meet the needs of our clients. For example, our mixes produce more product than those of our competitors. The cake mixes with make 2 x 7, 8 or 9-inch sponges depending on the thickness required or 18 large cupcakes or 24-28 smaller cupcakes. “Additionally, we only use quality ingredients in our products. A classic example is Wow Brownie – most of our competitors use between 8-15% cocoa powder. We use 100% Belgian cocoa powder. The chocolate we use in our products is Belgian with a 48-54% minimum cocoa solids whereas competitors use on average 15% minimum cocoa solids. Our packaging is also designed to show exactly how much mix is present; so, clients will not be faced with a large pouch of air and will be pleasantly surprised by our products every time.” With regards to the future, Susan is looking forward to growing Wow Cake Company and supplying her products to an even wider range of clients over the years ahead. “At Wow Cake Company we have many exciting developments on the horizon, and are currently looking at the European market at the moment, with a view to expansion. There is a lot of competition, but we feel we can make a difference. Also, the UK and European requirement to be gluten free is that the product must contain less than 25 parts per million of gluten. In the USA and Australia the requirement is zero parts per million. This is a fantastic opportunity for us as all our tests up to now have shown no trace of gluten; as such there is plenty of scope to increase our business and enhance our success even further.” Company: Wow Cake Company Contact: Susan Craddock Address: 327 Clifton Drive South, Lytham, St Annes, Lancashire, FY8 1HN, UK Wow Cake Company