THE excitement of the famous Willy Wonka treasure hunt is about to erupt in East Lancashire as an award-winning confectioner prepares to place a golden ticket into circulation.

Farmhouse Fare, run by entrepreneur Helen Colley, is to place the ticket inside a sticky pudding to celebrate one million of the puddings being sold.

The unique pudding is set to be roll off the production line at the company's new state-of-the-art bakery at Salthill, Clitheroe.

And the lucky customer who discovers the golden ticket will win a year's supply of Farmhouse Fare puddings.

Helen said: "The idea all came from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I thought we could not let our millionth figure go by without some sort of landmark.

"Obviously people who buy them are regular customers and it's a way of saying thank you to them.

"I'm a bit like Willy Wonka because I'm nuts!"

Farmhouse Fare has enjoyed phenomenal success over the past year producing thousands of sticky puddings a week.

It is currently the Lancashire Evening Telegraph new business of the year, an award which Helen, 36, said changed her life.

A mother of three young children, Helen now regularly jets to London for business meetings to meet the supermarket executives who buy her range of sticky puddings.

These buyers include Morrisons, Spar, Sainsbury's and Costco -- and the list is growing all the time.

The firm, which now employs 28 people, has humble beginnings and dates back to a time when Helen would drive around the Ribble Valley in a van delivering her puddings at the age of 18.

The recipe for the sticky toffee pudding was passed down by Helen's great-great-grandmother Janet Anderson whose picture from 1858 features on all the Farmhouse Fare packaging.

The new bakery, due to be officially opened tomorrow by Edwin Booth, has been named Anderson House after her.