Farmhouse Fare founder Helen Colley is hoping to transform the home baking market with a range of fresh cake-mix kits.

The Half-Baked Cake brand, which rolls out to Tesco this month, comprises four fresh ready-to-bake wet chilled cake mixes, which come with a recyclable greaseproof paper mould to bake the cake in, and toppings (rsp: £5). The mixes contain butter, free-range eggs and patisserie flour and have a seven-day shelf-life in store.

Available in Lemon & Lime Drizzle coffee & Walnut Scrumptious Chocolate and Farmhouse apple, the range was aimed at consumers who wanted a freshly baked cake but didn’t have the time or ability to bake one, said Colley, who sold Farmhouse Fare to Daniels Food Group in 2006.

She has set up the Half-Baked Cake Co with business partners including Anthony Hitchen, who sold his Hitchen Foods business to BakkavÖr in 2005. They estimate the privately funded company would clock up £3m in first-year sales.

The company hopes to transform the home baking market in the way the salad category was revolutionised in the early 1990s. “Back then, people had to buy four different types of lettuce prior to the introduction of the mixed-leaf bag,” said Colley. “People would use a little of each and throw away the rest.”

Aimed at ABC1 35 to 44-year-old housewives and working mothers, the branding is “fun, witty and retro-chic” and features brand mascot Victoria The Cake Maker.

The range will be available from Tesco Extra and Tesco.com from mid-July and the company is in talks with other national retailers.

“It is such an innovative concept that buyers are not sure where to merchandise it,” said Colley, adding that Tesco Extra already had chilled ‘easy home baking’ units that had made it easier for it to take on the brand.

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