A NEW chewy meringue, special sundae facilities and a custard cutting machine that will up production to 11m slices a year - it isn't just a case of baking a cake at Elisabeth the Chef, one of the Worcester area's biggest employers.

Millions of people pop into their local supermarket every day to pick up a cream cake or a steam pudding.

But not many will give any thought to the process that goes behind getting those products on the shelf.

Elisabeth the Chef, which has its main base in Broadheath, is the lead supplier of cold desserts to Sainbury's and Waitrose and supplies the majority of Asda's cream cakes.

Since June, it has established a new relationship with Waitrose and has identified a massive call for meringues.

A lot of work goes on behind the scenes to establish that sort of customer-base, as Andrew Johnson, chief executive, explained.

He said: "It is not just a case of securing a deal with a supermarket and then leaving it. We have people on-site at places like Asda, listening to what they want and working out how we can deal with it.

"We pride ourselves on this and it is as a result of these efforts that we can be innovative and come up with some great designs. Just last year we launched 101 new products.

"It is through our close working-relationship that we are due to launch 50 new products with Sainsbury's later this year, and this is how we came to know about a growing customer interest in meringue.

"We have launched a new chewy meringue that doesn't just break apart and a new tub of mini meringues is becoming one of our best selling snacks."

In total, Elisabeth the Chef produces 1.5 million cakes a week. These include all the cakes for England's football teams, including the national squad, as well as the usual cream and meringue varieties.

Its biggest seller is the Celebration Cake, 'From Me to You', which comes in three different sizes.

Half of the total goods are produced on a Thursday and Friday for the weekend rush and more than 500 people have the task of producing these.

Behind the scenes, people are busy preparing fillings - Elisabeth the Chef is doing this itself more and more - and even making sugar paste as well as checking and perfecting the finished products.

And while the firm relies more and more on machinery to make the products themselves, it is still very much a hands-on approach with the finished article.

Mr Johnson added: "We are bringing in more technology that will up our production, but we are not replacing people with machines.

"We are bringing more of our baking facilities onto the Broadheath site and we always need people to check the products, to package them, and in the case of the celebration cakes, sort them out and ice them.

"Increasingly, we are making the fillings ourselves, which gives that extra personal touch.

"There is a very good atmosphere here and people enjoy their jobs. They could even tell you how many eclairs they produce a minute. We are looking forward to expanding and making sure people enjoy the best cream cakes and puddings around."

And just in case anyone is wondering - Elisabeth the Chef makes 84 chocolate eclairs a minute.

CHEF'S FACTS

If placed end-to-end, the chocolate eclairs produced in a year would stretch from London to Rome.

The weight of sponge cakes made in a year is that of 178 London buses.

Enough cream is used in a year to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

The number of meringues made in a year would fill St Paul's Cathedral

Elisabeth the Chef would need to keep 160,000 chickens to lay all the eggs the company uses in the space of a year.