Celeb chef adored my cake...but I don’t like to eat them! (From Essex County Standard)

Celeb chef adored my cake...but I don’t like to eat them!

9:00am Saturday 24th April 2010 in Countywide news By Gareth Palmer

A MUM, who doesn’t like eating cake but has made a business of making them, has scooped honours in a national food competition.

Annie Sands’s gluten-free Christmas cake beat off competition from supermarkets and big bakeries to earn a commendation at the FreeFrom Food Awards, held in London, on Wednesday.

The cake baked by Annie, from Great Bromley, was praised by judges, including celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson, as “a full-bodied classic with plenty of fruit and great icing”. Her boozy choc brownies had also been shortlisted for an award.

Annie set up the Right Ingredient Cake Company a year ago, after friends and relatives praised the cakes she baked for her son Ruben, nine.

He suffers from colitis and cannot eat food containing eggs, wheat, dairy or soya.

Annie said: “It was quite daunting to be competing against such big companies, when it’s just me on my own in the kitchen at home.

“I don’t know if I would have entered if I had known what I was up against.

“I was excited just to have my two products shortlisted, but to be commended was just fantastic.”

Annie sells her cakes through local farmers’ markets and garden centres.

She said: “I’ve got regular customers who have got no particular dietary needs, but buy my cakes because they like the taste, so I must be doing something right.”

Yet, despite the success of her baking, the mum-of-three describes herself as “not a big cake person”.

“Beyond the odd taste while I’m cooking, I don’t really like to eat cake,” she said.

“Ruben is my chief taster and it’s great to have him, the one who inspired me to do this, beside me in the kitchen, checking everything tastes all right.”