Public Health England (PHE) set new targets for manufacturers to reduce sugar by 20% by 2020. With innovation as one of our key values, we have refined a number of technologies to allow us to produce a lower sugar cake blend to help our customers meet these targets and reduce the amount of sugar in their cakes.

Available in our popular Plain Crème Cake mix, this blend makes a cake that has 14.5% sugar, which is 36% less than our standard Crème Cake mix. This allows bakers to decorate the cakes as they would do usually, without compromise and still have 30% reduction in sugar, in comparison to a standard equivalent cake. With excellent structure and flavour, the blend has no artificial sweeteners or oligosaccharide complications. We can also offer cake mixes that are flavoured for those seeking variety.

Kells also offers bespoke blends, which can be based on a customer recipe, but using Kells’ technologies to achieve the required sugar reduction. For more information, contact the team or follow us on LinkedIn.

For Kells, our key considerations are always quality alongside taste and provenance, which is why in 2016 we began a collaboration with local farmer, Thomas Butlers. Just a stone’s throw from our mill on the banks of the rive Nore in Co Kilkenny, Thomas Butlers Farm in Bennettsbridge has very successfully been growing heritage grains including Ølands Wheat for Kells.

Ølands Wheat produces an exceptional quality flour, which is sold under Kells’ Little Mill brand. The flours unique properties allow bakers and chefs to offer extra special and flavoursome breads, such as sourdough and yeasted breads, as well as delicious pizza bases – a takeaway food that seems to have grown significantly in popularity in recent weeks.
In April, Thomas planted our largest crop yet, doubling the amount on last year, to meet the ever-growing demand for this unique and flavoursome flour.

Harvesting will take place in August, after which we will start the milling process. First, we dry the crop down using a grain dryer, which stops it from spoiling and gives a longer storage time. The grain is then milled using Kells’ traditional stone mill into a white flour. This process delivers all the great flavour characteristics of stone milling while complementing the natural flavour of the Ølands Wheat.

First grown on the Swedish island of Øland nearly 6,000 years ago, this ancient grain produces an exceptional type of flour that has a high protein content and high falling numbers, two very important elements for making yeast or sourdough leavened bread. Kells is one of the first to mill and offer Ølands Wheat for yeast bread in Ireland.

You can find more information on our Little Mill Native Ølands Plur – product code 2185 on the Kells webshop. To keep up to date on the progress of our Ølands Wheat crop, follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

I think we would all agree that the last few weeks have been a challenging time for everyone and our thoughts have been with all our suppliers and customers. Personally, I am very grateful that the Kells team are all well and whilst its certainly been different, it has been very much business as usual.

As we very slowly begin to emerge from lockdown, I thought it might be helpful to recap on how we can support your business.

We continue to stock a wide range of flours and have bread and cake mixes for those who are seeking quick and easy options, as well as seeds, flakes and proving baskets to help with your current baking needs.

You can send us an email where we’ll be able to help and support you with your request. We are also continuing to deliver product across Ireland.

If there is anything else we can help with please let us know.

In the meantime, you can also keep up to date with Kells on LinkedIn.