England native and baking entrepreneur Tracy Claros is already focused on Christmas due to making most of her money during the holiday shopping season. So despite 90-degree-plus temperatures, she’s been thinking ahead to cooler months and has begun the often nerve-wracking planning and logistics needed to ensure sales are jolly.
Claros moved to Austin in 2003 to start a dessert company, having reasoned the United Kingdom’s market was overcrowded, while the U.S.’s had little exposure to British desserts. She launched The Sticky Toffee Pudding Co., based on the British dessert classic, in 2004, but it hasn’t been easy. She hadn’t reckoned on U.S. demand for more sophisticated chilled deserts being almost non-existent compared to the U.K. and the rest of Europe.
The holiday sales peak results from most consumers viewing her product — moist sponge cake with finely chopped dates covered in a buttery toffee sauce and served warm — as a rich holiday treat and buying accordingly, which makes keeping her company afloat during the rest of the year a challenge.
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