Following on from our successful marshmallow tasting, a couple of weeks back we turned our attention to fudge!

I love a cottage business, Chunk Fudge is made in Penicuik by Kirstie. I had the chance to ask her a few questions about her business…

How did you get started?

I’ve been making fudge for about 10 years, mostly for friends, work treats and charity bake sales. I had started to get asked if I could make an odd box for a gift, then a few for wedding favours and before I knew it, I’d get a stack of requests for Christmas gifts. I was getting amazing feedback then from friends of friends and beyond, and everyone kept telling me I should start a business. I eventually rented a separate kitchen unit in April 2015, and since then have been stocking in a few shops and cafes locally as well as on my website. 2015 was also the year of the market for me – I regularly do Penicuik Market, and now have a regular spot every third Sunday at the famous Stockbridge Market. I also stock The Marshmallow Lady, The Steading Inn, The Little Parlour, Poddingtons Coffee House, The Roadhouse and shortly Thornbuds Florist in Easter Road.

Why fudge?

I am a keen baker and used to experiment with a lot of recipes. It just happened that I discovered a lot of successful variations with one very simple fudge recipe….and the rest is history!

What does a typical fudge making day look like?

My kitchen unit is at Midlothian Innovation Centre in Roslin. As I have 2 young kids and another part time job at the moment, I tend to do a lot of my fudge making in the evenings. I will alternate evenings with cooking, then bagging the fudge. I make it to order for online requests, and the run ups to markets are always pretty full on to make sure I have enough stock. It is a very small enterprise, everything is made very lovingly in small batches, so it can be challenging balancing out big orders with markets etc. I have a couple of close friends who enjoy helping out with a bit of labelling, which is always a blessing!

What’s next for Chunk Fudge

This year I’m looking to take on a few more local markets as I love being able to meet my customers and see their reactions when they taste the samples; that’s definitely the direction I’d like to go in. Alongside Chunk, myself and my husband run Big Fish Little Fish in Scotland, running family raves in clubs. There’s a real family festival atmosphere, and I’ve snuck in a Chunk stall to our events! I’m hoping as we grow into Glasgow and Aberdeen etc, the word of Chunk will also spread!

We were delighted when Kirstie asked us to taste Chunk Fudge. We received packets of Salted Caramel, Dark Chocolate & Raspberry and Mint Aero flavours. You get a good portion in each pack with huge squares which we cut down into smaller squares. My own favourite was the dark chocolate and raspberry as I have less of a sweet tooth than the rest of the family. The ten year old loves mint so the mint aero was right up her street. The husband enjoyed the salted caramel. What I particularly liked about Chunk Fudge was that like the marshmallows, the flavours were obvious, there’s nothing worse than buying a flavoured fudge and finding it just tastes like plain.

Check our more Chunk Fudge flavours here. I’ve just seen that they also do Turkish Delight flavour, that’s definitely going to the top of my list. I’m a little bit obsessed with anything flavoured with rose at the moment.