From Witches Hats to Mummified
Caramel Shortbread, why
UK bakers should embrace booming Halloween bakery market.
With just over a month before Halloween, UK bakers will want to capitalise on seasonal trends by expressing creativity in their range of spooky bakery treats.
According to Mintel, Halloween spending topped £1bn in 2023, a jump of almost 40% in comparison to the previous year, whereas Kantar / Mintel’s Cake and Sweet Baked Goods Market Report reveals that 1 in 4 typical bakery buyers purchase bakery goods to mark seasonal celebrations such as Halloween and Christmas.
Appealing to a Gen Z audience (12-24-year-olds) is key to capitalising on seasonal trade, with 87% of this consumer group expected to spend an average of £46 each on Halloween items, including food products.
With this in mind, bakers should think carefully about how to make their products deliver visual as well as taste appeal. Using colour, flavour, fun descriptions and a touch of imagination will increase the chance of younger consumers sharing pictures of yourr treats on social media, helping drive consumers to the bakery to increase sales.
Our NPD team came up with these eye-catching and delicious, Oozing Brain Muffins. Made with Zeelandia’s Quicklift White Cake Mix and filled with John Morley’s Raspberry Fruit Filling, the brain effect is created by simply piping random swirls of buttercream and then flooding the top Flemings Apple and Raspberry Jam.
While the weird and wonderful can be extremely appealing to the eye, another consideration bakers must make is ‘how to keep it simple’ and make use of their store cupboard ingredients.
For our ‘Mummy Millionaires’, we used Flemings sure Caramel (with a touch of purple food colouring paste) layered on shortbread, finished with a final layer of bakers white chocolate. Once set white chocolate strips were piped over to create the mummy’s robes.
Finally, a growing trend to host a Halloween party is driving demand for multipack Hallowe’en treats, that are easy and cost-effective to produce.
The Zeelandia NPD team came up with these scrumptious Witches Hats, made with a drop of Flemings strawberry jam added to a biscuit before piping Mallow Russe (coloured green with food colouring paste), into a cone shape, on top. Once dry to the touch the Mallow Russe was dipped in baker's chocolate and decorated with some green sugar sprinkles. Selling these individually or in a 4 or 6 multipack is sure to appeal to families as party food, or to give out to trick or treaters.
Gabrielle Baxter from the Zeelandia UK NPD team said; “Sometimes the best seasonal bakery ideas come from keeping it simple, looking at the ingredients you currently have in your bakery and how they can marry together to create something special.
“Key to Halloween's appeal to consumers is the use of colour, from the rich redness of blood to oozing slime green and ghostly white. Secondly, decoration on bakery items will help products stand out on bakery shelves and widen their appeal particularly to Gen Z who are very engaged with seasonal events, such as Halloween.”
Learn more about Zeelandia’s added-value fillings for your bakery needs today!
