Life got sweeter for a West Hampstead cake maker this week when she won awards for two of her recipes
Natalie Allen, 32, of Agamemnon Road, won two Great Taste awards from the Guild of Fine Food Retailers for her triple chocolate brownie and her wheat free chocolate cake.
Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson, also of West Hampstead, is just one of Mrs Allen's clients on a list that is now set to grow and grow.
"I'm thrilled. I only entered the competition for a bit of fun. When I won I was totally shocked," she said.
Mrs Allen set up her home business Sweet Things just over a year ago after giving up her career in marketing.
"It was something I had always wanted to do and after our wedding my husband just said go on then, live your dream. At the beginning I was only making five cakes a week, now it's up to seventy."
She has had to enlist two helpers to cope with the growing demand.
"Homemade cakes seem to be back in fashion. People keep saying they taste like the ones their grandmas used to make", she said. "My dad set me a target to sell the business for £5million in five years' time. It's a bit ambitious but I'm on my way now."
By Ben McPartland, Ham&High, July 2006.