It’s a dream that took Tara Mutton almost five years to build. In 2020 The Cornish Pudding Co was going to have a new HQ. It was the year each weekend had pencilled in for local food shows and fairs. The year the brand she had created was finally on the map. Little did she know, two weeks later everything would come crashing down. Covid had soccer punched the business, knocking it back to square one. All shows cancelled overnight.
“I’d taken on this massive project and given up my job at the council… to have it all taken away”. Panic begin to set in and Tara felt lost. “I had nothing”, she says, “I kept thinking what do I do?… I’ve got rent to pay and just taken out a three-year lease”.
Luckily all was not lost. The Cornish Pudding Co began to diversify. Tara took to social media and began to advertise treat boxes for delivery, offering a mix of different cakes and traybakes all made with locally sourced ingredients. With the help of her husband Phil and daughter Holly, Saturdays became delivery days and a keen customer base started to grow. She explains how the change proved successful.
“In the first week we had 25 orders and by the end of three weeks we were up to a hundred”. Then after being contacted by customers, asking if it was possible to come and collect, that’s when Tara took the next step. Beaming she says, “I thought why don’t I just open a shop?”.
The shop based in Liskeard, can be found at the top of the parade, sitting proudly on the corner of the street. Its windows are dressed with seasonal decorations and as you step in, you’re instantly struck with the smell of freshly baked cakes. Tara explains how initially, the building was bought simply for more space, and as a production base to hold stock for food events.
The venture was no mean feat. She explains working through a pandemic was “like treading water”. Due to Covid guidelines, social distancing meant it wasn’t possible to have all the tradesmen needed in. Bar basic plumbing and electrical work, she was left with a total blank canvas.
Tara and Phil took to the handy work themselves. YouTube tutorials acted as their main guide on how to decorate and get the shop to the standard it needed to be. “We built the counter ourselves and had to coat the walls with a special film to make them easier to clean”.
Considering she is completely self-taught, Tara is a true professional with a flare for customer service. The business has gone from strength to strength and from the way she talks seems to be one of the best decisions she’s made. Puddings have always been a favourite, to bake and eat. Her current career couldn’t have been further from the local council offices she was used to in her previous job. Her gut feeling told her to ditch the long phone calls and nagging and take to the comfort and creativity baking could provide.
“I just thought I don’t want to be sitting at this desk, doing this job, till I retire”. She adds, “I always knew in the back of my mind I would go down that line some way or another”. Of course, it hasn’t been without a bit of trial and error. Tara made it her aim to create the same flavours you’d find in the supermarkets but make her products fresher and without all the faff of added preservatives. She’d spend time breaking down recipes and understanding the ingredients as individuals. Never missing a trick, her creations would be sent off to the local college to have the nutritional content to make sure she’d hit the requirements to go professional.
Pushing through the added pressure of the pandemic was certainly a test of resilience. Going self-employed was scary enough, let alone the uncertainty that came with not qualifying for any government assistance. Tara describes how the situation she found herself in was very “fend for yourself”. The guidelines set out restricted the number of people in the shop, and meant screens had to be put up and hand sanitisers to be placed in view. Fearful of fines, she was extremely conscious that she would be caught doing something wrong, a cost she could not afford to pay.
Now into the new year, Tara hopes to take the wedding industry by storm. Happy enough to bake the centre pieces, you wouldn’t catch her decorating them as she doesn’t do things by halves. “I’d want to load them up too much, and wedding cakes are meant to be a little bit more refined”.
