Get the stories that matter to you sent straight to your inbox with our daily newsletter. Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

THE man who invented the world-famous Tunnock’s Tea Cake yesterday revealed he’s dreamed up another classic biscuit.

Company boss Boyd Tunnock says the prototype is a combination of wafer and chocolate butter icing with a layer of mallow in the middle.

Boyd, 80, whose grandfather Thomas opened the family’s first bakery in 1890 in Uddingston, Lanarkshire, said: “I’ve only made samples so far but it’s going to be a tricky thing to make.

“We’re just playing at the moment. Cutting the mallow is the problem.”

Tunnock’s annual sales are at a record-breaking £40million and the firm are No.67 on the UK rich list of private companies with the fastest growing profits.

The company, where Boyd’s daughter Karen Loudon and her husband Fergus are also directors, sell more than five million Caramel Wafers and three million Tea Cakes a week.

The success has brought the family great personal wealth – Boyd drives a silver Rolls Royce and races a 38ft yacht. But he still arrives at the factory – which despite the company’s nostalgic image uses state-of-the-art machinery – at dawn and puts in a full day’s work.

Boyd joined the firm in 1949 and introduced the Tea Cake in 1960.

He said: “I like Tea Cakes, but a Caramel Wafer is probably my favourite. We make more money from them.”

When he first invented the biscuits, production hit a glitch when mallow was left with a small peak.

This meant the chocolate topping couldn’t be applied uniformly.

But Boyd – dubbed Mr Tea Cake – solved the problem by applying a bandage to a roller that every biscuit went under to smooth out the peaks.

This method is still used today, more than five decades later.

Proud Boyd admitted: “There’s nothing I like better than watching the biscuits go round, 600 a minute.”