Indulgent, colourful decorations such as sprinkles and glitter icing are creating a vibrant new image for home baking

A generous portion of fun is being stirred into the home baking category’s product mix, which is helping it to move away from its traditional, rather old-fashioned image.
Sprinkles, glitter icing and other indulgent decorations and cake finishing products are creating a vibrant and infinitely more exciting image for the category and have grown in value by 3% year-on-year, according to TNS.
Chris White, MD at Fiddes Payne, which produces handmade 3D royal icing decorations for children and recently introduced English Country Garden cupcake kits and decorations for adults, predicts that there is much more innovation to come and believes that celebrity chefs such as Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver have helped to drive home baking’s image into the 21st century.
“Nigella is a great fan of cupcakes,” he says. “Celebrities like her have a huge impact and really do drive sales.”
David Brewis, commercial director at Sundora Foods says: “The proliferation of TV programmes, magazines and books dedicated to cooking is proof that modern consumers value home baking as a worthwhile category.”
For the first time ever, the Betty Crocker brand has joined forces with one of the UK’s most well-known women’s weekly magazines, Woman’s Own. The magazine’s logo will endorse the brand by appearing on more than 250,000 packs of Betty Crocker cake mix. Elsa McAlonan, editor of Woman’s Own, says: “Cookery is a key strength of Woman’s Own, and our readers really do trust the tips and advice we give. The Betty Crocker cake mix is a particular Woman’s Own favourite, so we are delighted to have our logo on its packs.”
Packaging continues to be a key factor in promoting the category’s young, fun image.
The importance of designing new products with bold, vibrant packaging, as well as redesigning and updating the old is recognised by all.
The Stamp Collection’s organic and wheat-free flours for baking, for example, have recently been given a makeover to bring them into line with the rest of the range. Strong contrast colours have replaced the silver background to maximise impact on shelf.