The world’s most coveted blind-tasted food awards, Great Taste, has just released the Great Taste stars of 2015 and Chesterfield Food Producer of the Year 2014, Liza Bakes Ltd is amongst the producers celebratingas its Victoria Sponge Cake, Belgian Chocolate Pecan Brownie, Mince Pies and for the second year in a row its Fruit and Ale Cake are now able to proudly carry the little gold and black Great Taste logo.
Judged by over 400 of the most demanding palates belonging to food critics, chefs, cooks, restaurateurs, producers and a host of food writers and journalists, Great Taste is widely acknowledged as the most respected food accreditation scheme for artisan and speciality food producers. When a product wears a Great Taste label it carries a badge of honour but more importantly, the Great Taste logo is a signpost to a wonderful tasting product – hundreds of judges have worked tirelessly to discover the very best, through hours and hours of blind-tasting a total of 10,000 different foods and drinks.
“Getting this prestigious award again and for another three of our products and one for the second year in a row is simply fantastic. It endorses what our customers tell us every day – that all our products taste superb” said Louise Milroy, Managing Director and Head Baker. “This is our third year as a limited company and the third year in a row that we have won awards for our products. It is a tribute to our award winning and hard-working bakery team and our passion – simply to produce every day the very best authentic artisan cakes, traybakes and desserts for all our customers”.

Liza Bakes Ltd is a family business. Louise started baking in her kitchen in 2005 and by 2008 was supplying premium handmade artisan bakery produce to local shops, cafes and delis from her bakery. Liza Bakes now has 8 Great Taste Award winners, supplies distinguished and award winning businesses across Derbyshire and as far afield as London; and is now able to supply individual retail customers placing orders online.
Louise said “We focus on supplying all our customers with consistently the very best tasting cakes and desserts. We want to help every local business we supply to stand out and we think they all do. Once again these Great Taste Awards enhance our reputation and contribute to the reputation of our brilliant customers. Over the past year our business has expanded strongly and we are proud to supply a wide range of fantastic local businesses across Derbyshire and surrounding counties. Our Great Taste Awards have contributed to this and undoubtedly helped the company to win Food Producer of the Year in the Chesterfield Food and Drink Awards 2014.”

Louise said that after taking care of the substantial orders for this week for established customers she and her team would be able to celebrate properly. “Then we have to prepare our award winning contribution for the Ashover Show coming up on Wednesday 12th August, as well as getting ready for the tasting event as a nominee again for Chesterfield Food Producer in the Chesterfield Food and Drink Awards 2015.
For Louise and her team the key to the success of the business is a passion for authentic great tasting food and long-term relationships. “Our business and reputation for outstanding products and service has been achieved over the past nine years by investing in our brilliant team and producing authentic, distinguished handmade produce, sourcing our ingredients wherever possible from Derbyshire and local partners.” Liza Bakes always use butter, free range eggs and quality nuts, fresh and dried fruits. “Our partnership with local businesses has been so important to us” said Louise Milroy. Suppliers to Liza Bakes include Ayres, Chesterfield Market for fresh fruit, fresh ginger and carrots for the carrot cake; Betty’s Farm at Willington near Derby supplies the free range eggs from their flock of 24,000 laying hens; and dried fruits, nuts, spices and some specialist sugars are supplied by Lembas, Sheffield, the specialty vegetarian and wholefood wholesalers.
Liza Bakes also works closely with award winning micro-breweries, providing the ales that go into the award winning Fruit and Ale Cake and Chocolate Beer Cake (both Great Taste 2014 Gold Star winners): Brampton Brewery a leading Chesterfield micro-brewery recreating the heritage of its predecessor – their Brampton Stout is a key ingredient for the “Brampton Fruit and Ale Cake” and the Impy Dark for the Chocolate Beer Cake; the Welbeck Abbey Brewery a traditional real ale brewery producing 15,000 pints of hand crafted ales a week, situated on one of England’s finest country estates, Welbeck Abbey. Their award winning Portland Black beer is a key ingredient for the “Welbeck Fruit and Ale Cake”; and the Derby Brewing Co with their Penny’s Porter a key ingredient for yet another variety of the award winning Fruit and Ale Cake and Chocolate Beer Cake from this award winning bakery.
Recognised as a stamp of excellence among consumers and retailers alike, Great Taste values taste above all else, with branding and packaging ignored. Whether it is cheese, ale, steak or chutney being
judged, all products are removed from their wrapper, jar or bottle before being tasted. The judges then savour, confer and re-taste to decide which products are worthy of a 1-, 2- or 3-star award.

There were 10,000 Great Taste entries this year and of those products, 130 have been awarded a 3-star, 597 received a 2-star and 2,382 were awarded a 1-star accolade. The panel of judges included Masterchef judge and restaurant critic Charles Campion, TV presenter and cook, Aggie Mackenzie, Great British Bake Off winner, Frances Quinn, Masterchef the Professionals finalist, Adam Handling, food buyers from Harrods, Selfridges, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer, and chefs including James Golding, Chef Director of The Pig hotel group, who have together tasted and re-judged the 3-star winners to finally agree on the 2015 Top 50 Foods, the Golden Fork Trophy winners and the new 2015 Supreme Champion.
Finally on Monday 7 September, at a nail-biting Awards’ Dinner at the Royal Garden Hotel, London, the great and the good from the world of fine food will gather to hear who has won the Golden Fork Awards and the final applause will be reserved for the Great Taste Supreme Champion 2015.