FK announce the winner of their annual New Year New Flavour competition
Fudge Kitchen has always prized and prioritised innovation; and every year pits the seven FK shops against each other in their “New Year New Flavour” competition. It’s a good-natured affair … in a cut-throat way.
For the winning shop, the prize is the sheer honour of seeing their creation entered into Fudge Kitchen’s illustrious pantheon of over 30 unique recipes, potentially becoming a permanent addition if it proves popular enough, which in the past has included Flapjack, Carrot Cake, Belgian Chocolate Swirl, Black Forest Gateau and Buttermint. That, and the deep satisfaction of blasting the other shops out of the water, of course!
This year, the Bath, Cambridge, Canterbury, Edinburgh, Oxford, Windsor and York shops were set the task of not only developing the best new slab fudge flavour for 2019, but of using a functional food as the main ingredient and, ideally, of making their entry vegan too, in celebration of Veganuary.
With functional defined as ‘foods that deliver additional or enhanced benefits over and above their basic nutritional value’, the 2019 judging panel prepared themselves for fudgey incarnations of CBD, soy beans, matcha, protein oats, kombucha or aquafaba and for inventive, vegan-friendly dairy replacements from cashew, almond, oats or coconut oil. The seventeen slices that arrived at Fudge Kitchen’s Aylesham production on 25
th January didn’t disappoint.
A table full of incredibly inventive, delicious, pioneering and inspired confections had been seemingly magicked out of the trademark Fudge Kitchen copper pots, including some amazing flavour combinations, using hemp, cacao nibs, turmeric, chia seeds, sea salt, lavender, beetroot, gluten free oats, coconut, chilli … even avocado; mixed with a mouth-watering menu of chocolates, caramels, nuts and fruit. And all with the FK promise of only natural ingredients.
And the winner was ….
For the seven judges, it wasn’t just the flavour that was being tested, but the appearance, the texture and the selling viability of the entries. It was not a task for the faint-hearted … or the diabetic, but after much discussion and a fair few ‘just one more sample, to be sures’, the winner was … a wondrous Chocolate & Hazelnut creation. Richly chocolatey, creamily fudgey and studded with crunchy hazelnut pieces, this beauty from Bath (a Bathing Beauty?) is also dairy-free and vegan-friendly, although you would never have known it.
Runners up (and all nipping the winner’s heels closely), were a zinging lemon cheesecake from Oxford in second place, drizzled with white chocolate and super-spice turmeric and a bronze for York’s incredible Choco Beet Brownie, offsetting (almost) some serious cocoa indulgence with superfood beetroots. In fourth place was Bath again, with their glorious, tricolore Strawberry Trifle; followed by Edinburgh’s groundbreaking, zesty Coconut, Lime & Chia fudge, at number five.
An incredible display of ingenuity, creativity and fudge-making artisanal skill from all seven shops, to which FK would like to suggest that they were all winners. Except we know that Bath wouldn’t have it!
fudgekitchen.co.uk