always leave room for some more ...

As a foodie, I always feel duty bound to bake a cake myself rather than rely on shop-bought confectionery.

But when the big five-O reared its ugly head just recently I felt I deserved a special treat, never mind my colleagues!

And so I turned to Patrick Moore - he of More Pud?' fame, and now a welcome regular at Kendal farmers market. The problem was, should I claim his to-die-for-desserts as my own handiwork or own up to the source of my scrummy birthday offering?

I owned up, of course. I had to - everyone knows tray-bakes and tea-breads are about my limit, not the likes of baked caramel lime & vanilla cheesecake', dark chocolate sour cherry & Amaretto tart', and gateau opera', an extravagant combination of almond jaconde sponge, espresso coffee, rum syrup, chocolate ganache, and coffee and vanilla bean buttercream topped with an edible sliver of 23.5 carat gold leaf!

I don't doubt that there are many dinner party cooks out there who have claimed More Puds as their own. It's only to be expected.

But consider this it's the customers who are proud to broadcast the provenance of their desserts who are Patrick Moore's real champions'.

"You find your market, and then hopefully your market finds you. In our case, word of mouth has been enough," said Patrick in the amazing kitchen of the Kendal home where he makes all his puddings. "We have been absolutely overwhelmed by the response from the general public."

It's a reaction 39-year-old Patrick should be used to by now; his puddings have been giving pleasure since his teenage days. Indeed, it was his gran's reaction to a treacle tart he made at the age of 12 that decided Mr M on his chosen profession.

"I found this old cookbook, it was one of Marguerite Patten's. I decided to make this treacle tart. It was the first thing I ever made.

"My grandmother had a piece and she was absolutely in awe of it. And then I thought look at the pleasure that this can bring'."

Determined to become a chef Patrick applied for a place at college. They turned him down - but only because he was too young at 12-and-a-half!

A few years down the line and he was old enough to be able to learn his craft at Kendal College which qualified him to work in the kitchens of hotels across the Lake District including The Damson Dene in the Lyth Valley, Rampsbeck on the shores of Ullswater, and Clarence House in Dalton before being head-hunted for the Cragwood at Windermere, home of the award-winning Impact Development Training Group.

In between feeding clients on the training courses, Patrick and the team were charged with raising the hotel's profile as a restaurant open to non-residents. Impact then acquired the nearby Merewood and Brierywood Hotels.

"We just went from strength to strength," said Patrick. "That first year we did a couple of weddings, then 20 the next. Just before I left we did 580 across the three hotels.

"Impact were fantastic employers," commented Patrick, whose tenure lasted 15 years at Cragwood.

He was then invited to help open Kendal's newest restaurant, Cortez, which is tapas-heaven for aficionados of Spanish cuisine.

However, the arrival of daughter Milly at the end of February last year turned Patrick's life upside down, in every sense.

"I didn't want to be an absent parent but being a chef isn't conducive to family life. I could have gone into product research or develop my own thing."

Phew! Thank goodness he decided to do his own thing!

Patrick takes care of Milly during the day while wife Louise (whom Patrick fondly refers to as head office'), works from home as a training provider. The evenings and weekends are then his for pudding production.

"There are still a lot of plates to spin but I can stop at any point to spend time with Milly."

Of course, it's not just a chef's hat that Patrick wears now "I'm sales director and accountant too," he quipped.

A member of Made in Cumbria and North West Fine Foods, Patrick's business comes mainly via farmers markets and events such as the ever-popular Food Lovers Festival.

He can't trade from home, but is happy to take phone-calls if you want to know his itinerary.

"All the puddings freeze really well (no gelatine in the cheesecake, for example, and no synthetic cream) so they can be bought well in advance of when they are needed and stored in the freezer. People can ring me and simply place an order for the next available market."

By the end of May, Patrick will be presenting his puds in brand new packaging - much stronger boxes and with a window' in the lid. And he's got a super-duper new patisserie chill cabinet to display his delectable wares at the markets.

The puddings change with the seasons and often reflect what Patrick has purchased from his fellow stallholders - like rhubarb and lemon custard tart', for example.

"I am very customer-driven too and if they ask for something then I have to listen," said Patrick who has obviously heeded the pleas of the chocaholic brigade dark chocolate and roast hazelnut tart for one, dark chocolate with apricot and ginger for another.

Check out the chocolate, ginger and apricot loaf too - extra bitter cocoa powder creates a wonderful sponge backdrop for pieces of bitter chocolate, stem ginger and apricot chunks.

"Carve into thick slices and dip into whipped cream any time you need a chocolate fix," suggests Patrick, who I thought had been elevated to sainthood (remember Roger Moore?) when I studied his logo.

"It's not a halo it's another o' as in moore'," explained this patissier extraordinaire.

"Always leave room for some more!"

You can call Patrick Moore on 01539-735557 or email morepud@btinternet.com