Chocolate and Olive Oil Cake
Free-from cake-maker, Marnie Searchwell has just won her 6th Great Taste Award – a Two-Star Award (given to a cake that was ‘beyond delicious’ according to Great Taste judges) for her chocolate and olive oil cake made with Fairtrade cocoa powder, extra-virgin olive oil, gluten-free flours and ground almonds
Chocolate and Olive Oil Cake, from £25.00 for a 7in cake, marniesearchwell.com
Food at the Cheltenham Literary Festival
Heading for its 70th birthday, The Cheltenham Literary Festival has a terrific culinary line-up this year – fighting for stage space with the likes of Gina Miller, Roger Daltrey, Sebastian Faulks and Wendy Cope are Yotam Ottolenghi, John Torode and gardeners’ delight, Monty Don
Cheltenham Literary Festival 5-14 October, for details visit www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/literature
Native Breeds
Gloucestershire based, British charcutiers and meat-curers, Native Breeds, won a British Charcuterie Award silver medal for their air-dried pork collar, cured with bay, coriander, mace and rosemary. The ceremony was held by the BBC Countryfile live show at Blenheim Palace in August
Native Breeds Air-Dried Native Nape, £4.90/70g from nativebreeds.co.uk
Plus… Final Five: finalists for the 2018 Seed Fund Award
The Seed Fund Award, offering a full year of tailored business support worth over £100,000, is given annually to a new food or drink start-up. This year’s finalists for the 2018 Award are listed below
Dorset Sea Salt
Salt has been harvested from the Dorset Coast (above) since the Romans. Aiming to revive this ancient industry, Dorset Sea Salt was launched in 2017 to hand-harvest salt from the Portland salt pans on the Jurassic Coast
Made for Drink
No-need-for-dinner bar snacks designed to pair with alcoholic drinks from around the world (eg chorizo thins, duck fritons and plantain chips)
Norty Puds
Allergy-conscious pudding freaks will have to forgive the dreadful name, but will have a delicious time testing out this range of single-serving, free-from pudding pots (flavours include a lemon/chia pudding; salted chocolate no-cheese cheesecake and a date and banana banoffie pie). All puddings are free from gluten, dairy, soya and refined-sugar
Rathlee Distilling Company
Cross-continent makers of Latin American rum blended with pure Cornish water
Green Lady Sparkling Tea
Innovative sparkling tea made from green Darjeeling tea leaves infused with carob fruit, nutmeg and rose oil
The Seed Fund is a philanthropic project founded and supported by The Collaborators and The Great Taste awards. For more information visit theseedfund.co.uk
Photo credit: Portland and Chesil Beach, dorsetforyou.com on Visual hunt / CC BY-NC-SA
