Pictured: Errol Drummond bites into the company's new 'Paradise Estates' rum cake

A leading Caribbean food specialist is looking to hit the headlines this month after its new product sold out at the world's largest rum festival. 

Sunrise Bakery, which is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year, showcased its traditional rum cake to more than 20,000 delegates and buyers at UK RumFest in a bid to get it stocked by the high-end retailers and supermarkets in the lead-up to the festive season and into the New Year.

Made from a secret family recipe, the product is ideal for special occasions such as Christmas, christenings and birthdays and is made up of dried fruit soaked in rum, port and sherry. 

Similar in texture to fruitcake, the 'Paradise Estates' rum cake is part of the Black Country-based company's ambitious growth plans that will see it post record sales and potentially relocate to a new centralised site in the Midlands. 

It is currently available through a newly launched website (www.paradise-estates.co.uk), with the products competitively priced to include free postage and packaging to anywhere in the UK.

Errol Drummond, Managing Director of Sunrise Bakery, commented:

"UK RumFest was an ideal event for us to launch our cake to an audience that knows their rum and we've used their feedback to shape the ingredients before its national release this month."

He continued: "We've taken a traditional recipe, added a splash of Caribbean rum and using modern baking techniques came up with a truly great tasting product that should appeal to both buyers and consumers.

"With the growing demand for international delicacies from the British public, I'm sure the rum cake will join our breads and spiced buns on the shelves of some of the biggest and most high profile UK retailers.

"In order to cater for everyone, there will also be a plain version that is made without fruit."

Sunrise was set up in 1966 to cater for the rapidly expanding Caribbean population in and around Birmingham and the Black Country.

In the forty-five years that followed, the company has grown from supplying a small network of local shops to one of the UK's leading bakeries employing 27 people from the community.

Investment in mixing stations and specialist ovens has been necessary to cope with expansion and the firm now supplies hard dough bread, spiced buns and bulla cakes to more than 250 independent retailers, 60 Asda stores and an increasing number of Tesco outlets.

"2011 was a massive year for us as a business," explained Errol. 

"There was a desire to mark the anniversary by bringing a new product to market and we believe the rum cake exploits a gap in the current product range."

Sunrise sold more than £1000 of rum cakes to eager customers at the UK RumFest and is now planning a strategic growth drive that will target both the multiples and independent retailers in its core areas of the Midlands, Yorkshire and London and the South East. 

There is also a concerted move to engage with large catering companies or venues that may consider using the Paradise Estates' products for major functions and events.