STORY: CSM Ingredients looks to nostalgia and comfort as it spices up autumn ranges
CSM Ingredients predicts that autumn and winter 2022 sweet bakery ranges will be dominated by products that meet the four demands of nostalgia, comfort, enjoyment and indulgence, manifesting with a focus on cookie cakes, stuffed cookies and the traditional Halloween ranges. Tapping into the pleasure gained from eating and drinking[1], bakers should create their ranges accordingly to meet their customer’s requirements.
Fifty-six per cent of people[2] have increased purchasing of comfort food and, irrespective of health concerns, taste and enjoyment remain the main reasons why consumers turn to products in an era when they are seeking out small indulgences that offer temporary escapism from every day life.
Coinciding with the fact that autumn is one of the busiest times of the year for bakers as they switch the focus to producing popular and high-quality ranges that includes seasonal and Halloween, the flavour of products will focus on nuts and spice ’warming’ such as cinnamon and chai. Cookies will be one of the season’s biggest trends as they are an all year-round firm favourite and lend themselves perfectly to the time of the year with Cookie Cakes and Stuffed Cookies being centre stage, oozing with delicious chocolate, marshmallows and branded chocolate products. They both achieve stand out on shelf and help widen the range to encompass new and existing audiences and they tap into trend of personalisation[3] with customers saying the exact fillings they want. And bakers fulfilling their requests. Halloween product ranges will see a focus on spiders and monsters as well as the traditional ghosts and ghouls across cakes, cookies and doughnuts with purple a dominate colour for toppings.
There will also be a focus on sustainability and sustainable products will come to the fore with ‘eco dieting’[4] a focus of many consumers via vegan product ranges and vegan cakes and doughnuts are going to important fixtures across the colder month to help fulfill the sustainable ‘eco dieting’ needs, as Veganuary 2023 approaches.
The new recipes include Spiced Toffee Apple Traybakes, Spider Cupcakes and selection of cookies - Ghost cookies, Stuffed cookies, Monster cookies and Chai-Spiced Maple and Pecan Cookies.
Marketing Director Pastry Mixes Cristiana Ballarini, from CSM Ingredients, comments:
“Food and drink are the perfect categories to deliver joy, happiness and camaraderie and this is especially relevant during the autumn months. As customers tend to dine inside, food is already seen as an accessible and affordable way for people to treat themselves and their loved ones and bakers should bear this mind at Halloween by creating stand out, amplifying flavours, colours, textures and interactivity. The varying age groups that Halloween and seasonal products appeal to was taken into consideration during our development of the recipes. From younger age groups through to teenagers and above there’s trick or treating and parties and family and friends get togethers and product ranges should make the most of this. Utilising all the different on trend themes from spiders and monsters, ghosts and ghouls to spiced stuffed cookies, bakers can really flex their artistic talents when it comes to high quality, product ranges that appeal to all age groups. The CSM Ingredients products featured in the recipes can be used across the whole of year and allow bakers economies of scale with an emphasis on utlising budgets and ensuring mixes can be used not just for one range or season but across the whole year.”
The recipes are available here.
[1] Mintel Food and Drink Pleasures 2022
[2] FMCG Gurus
[3] Mintel 2022
[4] Mintel Diet Trends 2022
