Nigella's tip for a sweet Christmas flies off the shelves

MAPLE syrup sales have soared since Nigella Lawson championed it as a key Christmas dinner ingredient, figures show today.

The chef published Nigella Christmas, which includes recipes for Maple roast parsnips and turkey, six weeks ago and already 26 per cent more bottles of syrup are flying off supermarket shelves. Asda, which reported the rise, says the "Nigella effect" has struck again.

Lawson has previously been credited with increasing the popularity of prunes, pomegranates and goose fat potatoes. She expounded the benefits of goose fat on BBC1's Friday Night with Jonathan Ross at the end of November 2006. By mid-December, shops were recording sales up 70 per cent.

Asda has ordered unprecedented supplies of maple syrup for a similar surge in interest. Demand is also expected to rise for gingerbread loaf, which Lawson suggests as a base for turkey stuffing.