Local Salisbury school girl cooks up spectacular Spekulatius fudge in Roly’s Fudge Pantry’s ‘Create a new Fudge Flavour’

Twelve-year-old South Wilts Grammar School girl, Ailsa Shaw, has swept past dozens of other entrants and competitors, to scoop first prize in the ‘Create a new Fudge Flavour’ competition.

The competition has been orchestrated by Roly’s Fudge Pantry in Salisbury in conjunction with the organisers of the Salisbury Food & Drink Festival – 15-18 September 2016.

Now Ailsa’s highly original Spekulatius Fudge has been developed into a new batch of fudge at Roly’s Fudge Pantry at 62A High Street and the new recipe will feature on the menu in the countdown to Christmas. Ailsa was also awarded a gift box of her Spekulatius Fudge during the Salisbury Food & Drink Festival as part of her prize and £25 worth of free fudge gift vouchers, presented by Roly’s co-owner Sarah Orton.

Speaking about her win, Ailsa Shaw said: “I’m really happy and it’s so exciting to think my recipe has been made into a reality at Roly’s Fudge Pantry Salisbury.”

Ailsa is no stranger to winning food competitions and recently picked up first place in the Waitrose Cup Cake competition. Explaining how she came up with the idea for Spekulatius Fudge she said,

“The inspiration for my fudge comes from the city of Salisbury and Christmas. I was thinking about these two topics when I found out that Salisbury is twinned with Xanten in Germany. After some research I discovered that Spekulatius are traditional biscuits from that part of Germany and I realised the rich combination of spices would make a delicious new fudge flavour for Christmas!”

So Ailsa set about baking some of the spiced and intricately shaped biscuits and then adapted the idea for a new Roly’s Fudge Flavour and even put together a very professional Power Point presentation as part of her pitch to the judges.

Speaking about the spectacular Spekulatius Fudge, Roly’s Fudge Pantry co-owner, Sarah Orton, said, “The evocative mix of spices and orange zest in our delicious crumbly fudge will create a real taste of Christmas which we expect it to be a hugely popular festive favourite in the countdown to Christmas. We are always looking to develop completely natural flavours with no artificial additives or colourings, so Ailsa’s recipe really fits the bill. We see hundreds of German tourists coming to our pantry each month and they are a nation of fudge lovers, so we’re expecting Spekulatius to be a hit with our German customers!”

Visitors to the pantry will be welcome to come and sample the Spekulatius flavour at Roly’s Fudge Pantry Salisbury, 62A High Street, Salisbury SP1 2PF from 10am-5pm Mon-Sat and 11am-5pm on Sundays.