Clondalkin’s Candlewood Bakery going from strength to strength

WHEN her first-born child was diagnosed with multiple food allergies as a baby, Clondalkin mother Eibhlín Thornton completely changed her diet and cooking methods.

Replacing traditional foods with ingredients that were suitable for her young son Danann, Eibhlín quickly became adept at baking food that didn’t contain nuts, gluten, dairy or soya.

The only problem facing the Cherrywood resident, was that she didn’t want her son, or herself, to miss out on tasty treats, so she started baking allergy free cakes, muffins, and cookies.

Over the years, Danann – now nine-years-old – saw his condition improve.

However, Eibhlín was inspired by friends and customer feedback at farmers’ markets, to quit her day job and establish her own bakery.

“I was working in a market research call centre for 12 years, and had gotten quite comfortable, but it wasn’t quite fulfilling other than paying the bills,” said Eibhlín.

“What sparked me was at my granny’s funeral in 2013, the prayer said to use your talents. I wasn’t using mine, so I started a blog and saw that nobody was doing something like this.

“Danann was diagnosed at eight months. I was feeding him, so I took all of those things out of his diet. After a while his eczema (skin condition) improved, but I didn’t want to not eat cake!”

After passing a HSE inspection, Candlewood Bakery was officially registered and set up at her home in 2015.

The start-up makes bespoke cakes for all occasions and caters for all special diets, and while not exclusive for people with coeliac disease or allergies, Eibhlín runs a tight ship in the kitchen.

She continued: “As a parent, I understand how difficult it is to trust other people when they are preparing food. I bake every cake, pastry and cookie as if I was baking it for my own child, and adhere to HSE regulations in keeping all equipment, utensils and ingredients completely separate.

“My kitchen is also nut-free, so if a customer does want something baked with nuts I will purchase the ingredients immediately before making it, ensuring nut products are not stored with any other ingredients.”

Candlewood Bakery supplies two Clondalkin businesses The Village Café and Nico’s, with “free from” products, and caters for individual orders “all occasions and all special diets.”

Eibhlín continued: “It has gone really good, there have even been some orders from Mayo and Kildare. We do a lot of sugar-free stuff.”

The mother-of-two is baking every day to keep up with demand, but is not ruling out an expansion at some stage.

“That would be brilliant – hopefully someday I can take over the world,” she joked.

For further information, visit the Candlewood Bakery Facebook page HERE or contact Eibhlín at 086 0553170.