Holiday Season flavors permeate every bakery, panderia, café, and donut shop. This is a time to embrace new flavor profiles, new decorating and accents to your baked goods, and some new offerings to wow your customers. Since the pandemic, came closures of established bakeries and new start up bakeries offering a twist on traditional treats and sweets. Most food service businesses are looking for ways to attract a new customer base, sell more products this season, and make more profit. The ideas below can help you create new products at a lower cost and achieve a higher profit margin, while keeping your same base menu items.
Think about flavor changes or inclusions on the base menu offerings. Popular seasonal flavor pairings for the Fall include pumpkin, apple, cranberry, cinnamon, nutmeg and other spices, whereas the winter holiday flavors are peppermint, chocolate, spiced chai, ginger, pomegranate, and orange. Pair these flavors via compounds and fillings in pastries and baked goods to attract a new clientele and/or a new menu item for your regulars. Create a “Flavor of the Month” or a contest to include your customer suggestions.
Seasonal decorations spruce up an ordinary baked good, that now may catch the eye of a different demographic of customers. An easy add are sprinkle fusion mixes. Create your own by mixing a few different shaped and colored sprinkles with each other and adding sugar pearls or crisp chocolate pearls for an elevated accent for donuts, cupcakes, cookies, chocolates, and cakes. Pre-piped chocolate decorations are a fun add also. Melt compound chocolate, pour into a piping bag, and pipe accents on wax paper or brush chocolate on lemon leaves to create chocolate leaves. A high-quality compound chocolate accent with a brush of gold luster or gold leaf elevates every type of sweet treat. Don’t forget dipping chocolate and caramel for apples, pretzels, rice cereal treats, brownies, cake balls, and even donuts!
Display and packaging can also put a spotlight on the newly flavored and accented holiday product. Simple changes, like a twine tie to the box with your card. Or fresh rosemary sprig included in the ribbon on a box. Production packaging? Just a simple holiday icon added to the business label can set the product apart. Remember, customers eat with their eyes, so a beautifully decorated and packaged item is more appealing than a plain item.
For more ideas, subscribe to our monthly newsletter, and follow our blog posts. Check our restaurant and bakery products today. Please follow our social media for updates on holiday hours and specials.
Happy Holidays from the team at Buchmann Bakery & Restaurant Supplies. We look forward to serving you during the holiday season.