Dessert maker’s Sweet taste of solo success

“Quirky but delicious” is how Charlotte Merrifield’s desserts have been described. And she wouldn’t argue.

“I love the way things look, but I also want them to taste incredible.”

If you are a fan of upmarket supermarket desserts then you may well have eaten one of Charlotte’s creations without knowing it.

She has developed and made desserts for GU, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose, to name but a few.

Now, however, she is branching out and putting her name to her desserts with her new venture ‘Undeniably Charlotte’.

“I’ve always made desserts for other people and kept away from the limelight, but now this will be my name and my photo on the box,” she says. “It really gives me butterflies!”

And Charlotte and her husband Kevin have just signed a lucrative deal which later this month will see them supplying 1,400 cheesecakes a week to 31 Booths stores under her new ‘Undeniably Charlotte’ brand.

It is a mixed emotion for Charlotte as it has meant closing down her successful cafe and patisserie, Sugar Therapy in Harrogate, where the couple live.

“I had hoped that we could keep both businesses going. But we realised that it just wasn’t going to work. So we took the difficult decision to close the shop. After five years and having had great support from the people of Harrogate it was a sad moment.”

But the future is looking bright for this one time pastry chef who once made the world’s most expensive doughnut and has made chocolates for the Queen.

Charlotte, originally from Derbyshire, always knew she was going to be a chef, even if her family took some convincing.

When she left school she went straight to catering college. “We were sent on a six-month placement to a kitchen, and during my time there the pastry chef stormed out and they turned to me to help – with my six months training and one cookbook!” she laughs. “Desserts are a strict discipline and you either love them or hate them but after putting together a selection for the sweet trolley that day I was hooked. I knew I was good at it.”

After stints in the kitchens of Gary Rhodes, Gordon Ramsay and Albert Roux, she began creating divine desserts for big dessert companies and supermarket own brands, and working with top chefs such as Heston Blumenthal and James Martin on the development of their personal desserts.

“When the recession hit people couldn’t afford to eat out as much and so started to have dinner parties again,” says Charlotte.

“A lot of people are scared of making desserts or just don’t have the time so we came up with a range of upmarket desserts which people could finish off at home. They were a huge success.”

Some of her most memorable creations have included the world’s most expensive doughnut, a collaboration between Krispy Kreme and Selfridges, to create a doughnut worth £2,000. “I loved doing that. I could use as much gold leaf as I liked – I was in my element.”

Moving to Harrogate five-and-a-half years ago, Charlotte also took the plunge into retail, creating a boutique patisserie, Sugar Therapy, in Harrogate to give customers a chance to experience first-hand her designer cakes, afternoon teas and specialist cookery school.

“It was always my dream to open my own shop but also a real challenge,” says Charlotte. “I was completely out of my comfort zone when it came to PAYE slips and spreadsheets.” But with her Booths deal kicking off this month and a new manufacturing unit in Thirsk to run, Charlotte has had to make the difficult decision to close the shop.

She plans to keep her Sugar Therapy brand which is already stocked in Weetons and Fodder in Harrogate.

But the opportunity to sell her own-brand desserts across Lancashire, Cumbria, Yorkshire, Cheshire and Greater Manchester through such a prestigious supermarket is an opportunity Charlotte wasn’t prepared to miss.

“I approached Booths with some of my products a few months ago and gave a presentation. By the afternoon, before I’d even driven back to Harrogate, they’d called to say they were very interested.

“Booths is all about 
quality and provenance, and I’m so excited about it: it opens up a whole new world to me.

“We’re offering two cheesecakes, Raspberry & Madagascan Vanilla and Passion Fruit, which are moulded into a dome so they look very striking. Handmade to a continental-style recipe so they’re soft set and very like ice-cream in texture, they are also hand decorated,” says Charlotte.

“The best bit is that each one has a secret surprise pocket at its centre, so the raspberry one has tart raspberry compote inside, and the passion fruit has a beautiful silky passion fruit curd in the middle.

“We’ve got three deliveries per week of 1,400 units and it’s a short shelf life product, so we’ll need to make them in the morning and get them dispatched to Booths by the afternoon,” says Charlotte, whose husband Kevin has worked for Morrisons and Tangerine Confectionery, York, in logistics and planning, will be joining her in the business.

A self-confessed control freak, Charlotte says the hardest thing will be delegating.

“I think I will find it hard to keep my hands off.

“You have to be exacting with patisserie, follow the method to the letter, and although it can be frustrating when you get it right it feels great.

“As I’m quite OCD, I’m perfect for this kind of job.”