Keira Knightley splits - but her brownies live on

When Keira Knightley and Rupert Friend's break-up was confirmed last week, her father said the reason "was a whole raft of things". You had to wonder, was one of them the cakes? In a recent interview, Keira revealed her love of baking and said Rupert gave out her gluten-free brownies on the set of his latest film. Maybe they weren't good enough to keep him sweet.

Perhaps she should have chatted to Jenna Barclay, founder of Up Cakes, whose wheat, sugar, dairy and egg-free ChocBites have made it onto the afternoon tea menu at The Ritz in Piccadilly.
Formerly PA to Jimmy Choo founder Tamara Mellon, Barclay began studying nutrition and felt that she needed to adopt a healthier lifestyle. "I became vegan but still wanted to eat treats, so I started experimenting," she says. "Every time someone tried my cakes they would say, 'These are great because I'm wheat intolerant' or 'My kids would love these because they can't eat eggs', so I thought, 'Could this work as a business?'"

With her cakes selling at upcakes.co.uk and being stocked at independent cafés, Barclay is tapping into the booming "free from" food market.

Independent market analyst Datamonitor predicts the UK's gluten-free market is set to grow by £800  million over the next five years, while Coeliac UK, the charity for gluten-intolerants, has 1,200 new members joining every month.

Meanwhile, wheat-free and gluten-free brand Mrs Crimble's has been selling one of its macaroons every six seconds in London, more than five million a year.

"This is the future of cakes," says Chick Morton, founder of another "free from" bakehouse, Cookies and Scream. "So many children have a nut or egg intolerance that it's going to be the way forward. Whenever we have a market stall, people first ask which of our cakes are wheat-free. They're thrilled when we say, 'All of them'."