Betty’s Ice Cream has been earning rave reviews for its handcrafted ice cream cakes

Luxury ice cream innovator Bethany Boyd has set her sights on winning business in Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland for her unique range of ice cream cakes.

The Pomeroy-based artisan entrepreneur, who owns and runs the Betty’s Ice Cream family business, is seeking experienced frozen food distributors in both markets as she seeks to build on the growing popularity here of her cakes for birthdays, weddings and other special occasions.

Bethany (22) has been earning rave reviews from happy customers for her skilfully handcrafted ice cream cakes with the assistance of Linda’s Bakery in Dungannon since launching them last year at events such as farmers’ food markets across NI. The dessert cakes have now become an important and growing element in her small luxury ice cream business which has been focused on innovation since Bethany launched the enterprise.

Innovations already implemented have also successfully included a unique brown lemonade flavour last year. The flavour harks back to the days when brown lemonade was a popular beverage with employees at Harland and Wolff shipyard in east Belfast. Bethany created a unique heritage flavour with the help of chef Brian Magill at the South Eastern Regional College in Bangor, a successful further education centre.

“Coming up with novel flavours and different products that extend the role of ice cream is the way I aim to grow my business in a competitive marketplace now and in the years ahead,” explains Bethany, who set up the business during her studies in Food Business Management at the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) at Loughry.

“I believe our ice cream cakes offer something that’s really different and provide a touch of real luxury for desserts and other important occasions.

“Our cakes are proving immensely popular especially for special occasions because they offer something completely different with the focus being placed on the luxurious, dairy ice cream.

“We’ve already had a number of approaches from outside NI for our ice cream cakes and would be keen to explore the opportunity that clearly exists for in export markets particularly in GB. We can shape our cakes to suit the individual requirements of customers.”

Bethany, who grew up on the family farm near the Tyrone village, always wanted to run her own small business and was keen to develop her links with the farming community during her studies at CAFRE.

At the heart of the Cookstown campus is a well-equipped Innovation Centre that offers companies of all sizes and categories extensive facilities for the generation of new food ideas and help in bringing these successfully to market here and abroad.

Bethany also undertook six months working in the industry at Michigan State University in the US as part of her course at CAFRE in food management.

She has been shaping her small business with help at CAFRE in areas such as new product development and has a number of speciality ice creams in the pipeline.

She puts the growing success of her easy scoop ice cream flavours and great tasting cakes down to being able source fresh milk from a local dairy farm and her own commitment to consistent quality, outstanding success and responsive customer services.

“We are hoping to find experienced distributors with a good network of contacts especially in the hospitality sector, such as hotels and premium restaurants, which ware keen work closely with us in developing the markets here and outside NI for the luxury cakes,” continues Bethany.

Aided and encouraged by dad Trevor and mum Barbara, Bethany is keen to build on existing business with farm shops and other smaller retail outlets across NI. The cakes would be something different the farm shops and delis could also offer customers.

Participating in local markets also enables Bethany to gain important feedback about her products.

“I am always interested to hear customers’ ideas especially about what they want for their event and then creating it for them. Ice cream is flexible and since we are a small business, we have the time to create flavours and colours to exceed their expectations," she adds.