Top-secret chocolate cake

For the thousands of children who suffer with food allergies - and their families - everyday life is an ordeal. School meals are difficult and birthday parties can be a nightmare.

"I spend birthday parties on my hands and knees, going through the rubbish, trying to check the food labels," says Claudia Leyens. "People don't realise the effects of living with a food-allergy sufferer. I wipe my mouth and wash my hands before I kiss and cuddle my daughter. People think I'm paranoid - but I'm only trying to protect my child."

Claudia's seven-year-old daughter, Anouska, has outgrown infant allergies to eggs, dairy products and wheat, but remains allergic to nuts, seeds and fish. Shop-bought birthday cake is out of the question. Claudia became increasingly frustrated by the food industry's general apathy towards those with allergies: "It puzzled me why manufacturers were willing to stick labels on their foods to safeguard themselves - such as 'this food may contain nuts' - but refuse to endorse the safety of their product. I can't take a chance; just a trace of nuts could make Anouska ill.''

So Claudia, a forceful 34-year-old from north London, took direct action. Letters of protest aren't her style. Instead, she decided to create an allergy-free cake; the sort of thing her daughter could enjoy at a party. Firstly, she contacted Anouska's immunologist, Dr Gideon Lack of St Mary's Hospital, who liked the idea and suggested that as well as nut-free, any product should be egg-, dairy- and soya-free, too.

There was just one problem - Claudia didn't have a recipe. Undaunted, she kept looking and asking. A chance meeting with an old friend, whose grandmother had had an egg-free cake recipe, produced the simple but vital formula. "It just listed the basic ingredients and mixing order. I tried it, and it worked. I then spent six months adapting and modifying the process."

That is as much as Claudia will reveal. The precise recipe remains a guarded secret. "Everyone's trying to find out about it, and I'm not telling," she adds firmly.

Her next quest was to produce her creation commercially. One name kept coming up - Kinnertons, a branded confectionery company that had just invested more than £1 million in an entirely nut-free factory. Kinnertons then helped develop the Chocolate Fudge Cake into a commercial product, with a healthy shelf life.

While there are plans to launch more cakes, Claudia sees this as only part of her crusade. She has received a special award from The British Allergy Foundation for her endeavours, and aims to continue working to create food-allergy awareness: "This is just the tip of the iceberg - there is a serious lack of education in food allergies. The only cure is prevention and that means taking on GPs and schools."

It's no surprise to learn that this is something she has already tackled personally: "I've managed to change school policy. Banning nuts from school and getting kids to wash their hands after eating must be standard procedure. I even arranged for my GP to go to school and instruct staff on how to use the epi-pen [the antidote to an extreme allergic reaction]. And I'm involved in checking the school-meal menu. With young children, there's such a strong chance of cross-contamination in the playground - if there aren't precautions, it can be as dangerous as waving a gun around."

The impact of Claudia's work has already hit home, as she was able to give Anouska an extra special present for her birthday last week: "She's normally embarrassed that her birthday cake is always home-baked. And this year it wasn't. I got an early sample of the chocolate fudge cake, she took it to school, and felt just like everyone else.'' But as her achievements reveal, Claudia is not like everyone else: "I'm shocked that I have already made such an impact," she admits. "I can't believe that my cake is up there with the big boys like Nestl? and Cadbury. I had the foresight to see that there was a potential market. But really, I'm just making a point - and keeping a promise to Anouska that I would do something."