Being made redundant during lockdown turned out to be a sweet blessing in disguise for Lauren Milne.
Instead of wallowing in self pity, the 23-year-old mechanical engineer graduate from Portlethen cheered herself up by making her ultimate comfort food – ice cream.
But what started purely as a hobby using a £40 ice cream machine from Argos quickly whipped up into something so much more.
Society caught up with Lauren to get the scoop on her new ice cream venture Lolly’s Ice Cream.
Have you always been an ice cream fan?
Yes, I’ve travelled to almost every ice cream shop in the whole of the north-east, I love going out for the day and getting ice cream. My grandparents (Janice and Alexander Barclay) used to live in Plymouth and would take (me to the) beach almost every day and my granddad would always take us to the different ice cream shops.
I’ve always been into baking as well so the two tie in nicely together. My mum used to buy little baking kits for me and at the age of 15, I got a part-time at the bakery Kelly of Cults. At the time it was my dream to have my own bakery.
Where did your path take you after leaving school?
I’ve always been hands on so I ended going to college to do mechanical engineering. Growing up I was always helping my dad (Ernie) fix cars, that was big passion of mine. After college I went on to University where I graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering so the whole bakery thing went to the back of my head.
When did you start to make your own ice cream?
I had been working offshore as an engineer for about a year but I got furloughed during lockdown so that was when the ice cream making kicked in. Looking for something to pass the time, I got myself a little ice cream machine from Argos for £40 and that’s where it all began.
And then shortly after being furloughed I got made redundant. It actually turned out to the best thing that happened as it made me realise that I wasn’t really enjoying my job. So I just kept making ice cream.
When did your hobby turn into a business?
I wanted to make sure I was doing it all right so I got a part-time job and then spent a few years developing recipes. Originally I wanted to have my own scoop shop selling ice cream but I couldn’t find a location that felt right.
So my dad found another solution which was the ice cream bike. It’s a special ice cream bike from Austria and this is the first one in Scotland.
It’s basically like a bike version of an ice cream van and I can store ice cream on the bike for 13 hours so I use it for events and weddings. People can also order ice cream from my website and I’ll deliver it to their doorstep.
Can you tell us all about your ice cream?
It’s mostly my mum (Lisa) who comes up with flavour ideas and we have a lot of favourite desserts so I like to use them in my ice cream flavours. I find that a lot of the time, you see the same flavours like vanilla and chocolate, stuff that you see everywhere and I just want to give people that opportunity to try things that maybe they haven’t seen before.
I’ve been on holiday to America and I’ve seen things over there that we don’t get here like the Ooey Gooey Butter Cake its like a cream cheesecake in a cream cheese ice cream. It comes from St Louis.
I release a new flavour once a week which is either something that I have already developed in my portfolio or also a customer request.
I love it when a customer comes to me and says this is a flavour, I can’t get it anywhere, will you make this for me and I’ll develop something for them.
What are your most popular flavours?
I’ve got well over 50 flavours. The salted crack caramel is probably one of my most popular ones so far.
At the Taste of Grampian event recently, people were walking past and you could see their faces light up when they saw it.
The banoffee pie ice cream and the toasted coconut ice creams are also popular. The one that I did recently that actually sold out within the week was s’mores which is an ice cream with a toasted marshmallow base, so I toast the marshmallows and blend them in the vanilla base of the ice cream then I make a homemade marshmallow fluff which I swirl through the ice cream then mix in bits of chopped up coated biscuit as well.
We hear you also have sorbets and vegan ice cream too?
Yes, I’ve expanded into sorbets and vegan ice cream too. The vegan flavours I have at the moment are mint chocolate chip and a chocolate orange which have been really popular.
I’ve also developed a few vegan-friendly sorbets including a chocolate orange sorbet which was a huge hit at an event I was at recently as well as a rhubarb and strawberry sorbet.
Do you taste the ice cream every day?
Yes, it’s both a blessing and a curse. Every time I develop a new flavour, I get to try them out and on my friends and family too. Everyone’s always round now so that might be why.
What makes your ice cream so special?
There are different categories for ice cream from premium all the way up to super premium and that’s all about the percentage of fat that is in the ice cream.
My ice cream is on the upper end, between 17 and 20% butter fat which comes under its own category of ultra premium ice cream so you get that gooey, dense, creamy, really thick ice cream and it’s churned at a much slower rate than most ice cream.
Your vanilla ice cream is more than just vanilla isn’t it?
Yes, a lot of people say to me “just vanilla please” but it’s not just vanilla there’s a lot more in it than your typical vanilla. There’s a richness to it.
It’s more than just the ingredients as well, it’s the process and how it’s made and how it’s churned. The recipe is a family secret.
What about the cones?
The cones are all homemade and hand rolled with flavours including vanilla, cinnamon and chocolate.
What’s your plans for the future?
One day I would love to take over the world with my ice cream. With the bike at the moment, it’s something that I find cool and interesting, it’s never been seen here before so the more I can develop that and spread it across Scotland then the more opportunities to get further down south.
For more information about Lolly’s Ice Cream go to her website, Facebook and Instagram.
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