Their ice cream has been dubbed “better than sex” but what about their cakes?
Sheila Gray runs Fochabers Ice Cream Parlour and shot to fame earlier this year after a happy customer described her Rabbie Burns themed haggis ice cream as “better than sex.”
Now, she has scooped a national award for the third year in a row.
Ms Gray created a special birthday ‘cake’ – made completely of ice cream – to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Ice Cream Alliance, the UK’s trade body for the industry.
Now that creation has come first in the large artistic class of the alliance’s annual National Ice Cream Competition.
Her success follows victories in different categories last year and in 2017, and she also won other awards back in 2013 and 2014.
Ms Gray had never made ice cream until she opened her store in Fochabers nine years ago.
She has become well-known throughout Moray for her creative and strange recipes which have delighted locals, including creme egg, white chocolate twix and her Valentine’s Day special passionfruit and prosecco.
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After leaving the meat and poultry business, she decided to branch out into something she wanted to do, and started the shop in 2010.
She said: “When I heard I had won another award I was really shocked but delighted.
“I had entered before but never been successful in that category. This time I was helped by my mother Annie, who used to do cake icing. She was sat watching, and she got me to change it and so I started all over again.
‘Better than sex’ haggis-flavoured ice cream from Moray leaves MPs in stitches
“It took me a couple of days, working for just a few minutes at a time before putting it back in the blast freezer, to stop it melting. You have to work really, really quickly and I probably did about 20 mini sessions on each day.”
Zelica Carr, chief executive of the Ice Cream Alliance, said: “Sheila’s creation of this superb ice cream cake is a wonderful way to mark the 75th anniversary of the alliance.”
