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Muffins filled with liver, ice cream containing mashed potato, fudge packed with tuna and ice lollies on a jerky stick… They’re not recipes from Heston Blumenthal, but one islander’s way of helping pets get a slice of the Great British Bake Off action.
Chantal Ballingall’s ‘Jersey's Barking Bakes’ is a new treats trader with a twist.
Though her recipes would do no harm to the human belly with their all-natural ingredients, Chantal’s customers are the island’s dogs, cats, rabbits, horses and guinea pigs.
The business launched in September to roaring - or howling - success after Chantal had spent a mere few months in the pet treats game. She started experimenting in late summer, and now finds herself making the pet-friendly concoctions from her kitchen lab twice weekly on her days off from her full-time job.
Pictured: Chantal makes a wide variety of treats for all animals - no matter their dietary requirements.
“It’s completely taken off! It took me by surprise. It’s a bit bonkers really,” she tells Express before launching into the tale of where it all began.
It started with a random request from a friend to fashion a treat for her dog. Despite Chantal’s usual dislike for baking, she agreed to give it a whirl and the mission was a success. That led to another friend asking for a rabbit-ready snack, which was an equal hit.
“I hate cooking normally!” Chantal laughs. “It just started off as a bit of fun. It’s more about the challenge of looking for things to put in it that are natural and safe [for animals]… It was a bit of a hobby, I didn’t think it would go anywhere.”
But she soon became absorbed by the challenge of researching pet perfect flavour combinations without additives and absorbing studies about what ingredients are best kept out (lacto-free is best for felines, and pups should be guarded from garlic, apparently).
Pictured: Hungry pets can also get their paws on salmon muffins and jerky, as well as some crunchier chews.
“I will make a pet treat for any animal I’m asked to make a pet treat for. I like the fact that I can be challenged. There was one lady with a yorkshire terrier, and her yorkie is too small for ordinary bonios so I thought, ‘Fine, we’ll make some mini bonios for little dogs too.’
“People are really into their animals at the moment, and it’s really nice to know that what I’m doing is providing pets with something that is totally natural, but fun. The owners enjoy it too because they know it’s not full of additives and preservatives.”
Each recipe is carefully taste tested by Pawl Hollywood and Prue Lead in pet form: her pups, Mac and Millie.
“My dogs probably are the other reason why I took it a bit more seriously,” she confesses.
Pictured: The pups in charge of the taste test.
“The younger one [Mac] has got a nasty condition called anal furunculosis and colitis so he’s got a really delicate stomach and I’ve got to be careful with him, so I was trying to find treats that were safe to give him.”
As a result, the pawsome pair are taught not to touch food in the house. “I really feel sorry for them because I’m baking so often but I have to be strict with them. They sit there looking at me, and I’m like, ‘Go away!’ And they look at you so sad!”
Despite training, Mac couldn’t stop himself from being overcome by the tempting smell of a freshly-made snack one day. “He actually stole a whole liver bake about six weeks ago now - so that would be about 10 bags’ worth! I was really worried that he was going to have a problem, but he didn’t. No problems at all, thank goodness.”
His lack of reaction was likely down to the natural, locally-sourced ingredients, Chantal says. That local sourcing plays into the brand’s eco-first ethos. Chantal only bakes in batches on her allocated days or when the oven is already in use, and will try and make deliveries to customers based around her “toings and froings from work” to keep down her carbon footprint.
Pictured: One very happy customer.
Those bakes are then wrapped up in compostable Vegware packaging and topped with colourful stickers featuring a happy cast of animal characters set against a Jersey backdrop. Once complete, they almost look good enough for humans to eat. In fact, one person has already made the mistake.
“Somebody who I work with had some of the tuna fudge. On the packaging it said ‘fudge’ so her daughter, who’s a late teenager, picked it up expecting it to be fudge! Can you imagine putting it in your mouth thinking it’s going to be all sugary and sweet and getting a tuna taste? But it’ll do her no harm - it’s all natural.”
While that teen might have got a shock, the fishy fudge - a combination of egg, flour (sometimes gluten-free if a pet has allergies), oats and tuna - is a favourite among canines. Looking ahead, Chantal says she’d like to be more seasonal. She has already experimented with peanut butter and salmon ice creams this summer, and will next year make doggy lollipops, using her popular chicken liver, sweet potato and carrot jerky as the stick. Autumn may see pumpkin on the menu, and she’s already looking to winter with a special Christmas hamper.
Up to now, all orders were taken via Chantal’s Facebook page, but business took a big leap forward last week. She launched her range in the dog-friendly Barista coffee shop in St Brelade, and couldn’t be more delighted about it.
Pictured: Tasty items like this savoury cake will be on offer at Barista from now on.
“It’s cool, exciting and almost a bit scary,” she says.
Let’s just hope no one else mistakes the canine confectionary for a regular snack with their coffee-to-go…
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