British Baker’s top bakery launches of 2023 revealed

There was innovation by the bucketload in 2023 as bakery businesses looked to tap into the top trends, changing consumer habits, and more with a raft of delicious baked goods.

Here, the British Baker team reveals some of its favourite new products to hit the shelves in 2023:

Sticky Toffee Slump Cake, Booths

This cake gets its name from the slump that is created by cooling it upside down. The well developed as a result is then filled with a smooth caramel sauce.

The seasonal creation was made by Cakehead for Booths and, alongside the caramel-filled well, features a sticky toffee sponge, topped with white chocolate frosting and a caramel swirl.

Speaking to British Baker earlier in the year, Megan McCardle, food-to-go and hospitality buyer at the retailer, noted that the team debated whether to use the term ‘slump cake’ but found it to be a conversation starter between staff and customers.

Bowla

Bowla, also known as the bowl with a roll, hit the scene in 2023. When baked, the innovative shape allows for the top to be separated from the bottom to produce an edible bowl and a roll for dipping.

Its journey to the market was not a simple one. Bowla began life in 2007 following a mishap with a second-hand bread making machine. There have been several iterations over the years, resulting in the development of a patented mould, which ensures the dough bakes in the iconic Bowla shape.

The concept has huge potential with the father and daughter team behind it, Clayton and Hannah Worth, highlighting the possibilities for different types of doughs and fillings, and also revealing their ambitions to sell the business to a major player in the baking industry.

Cube Croissant, M’s Bakery

This cube croissant, filled with chocolate crème patisserie and raspberry compote, has been described by industry experts as a “triumph”. These same experts deemed it worthy of the title of New Bakery Product of the Year at the 2023 Baking Industry Awards.

M’s Bakery in Bournemouth described demand for the laminated pastries as “constant” before securing the accolade, and it has increased substantially since then.

The croissant takes three days to make with ingredients including Estate Dairy butter, strong white flour, and French T55 Flour. The croissant dough is baked in 8x8cm tins with a lockable top to help create the perfect shape. Once baked, the cubes are cooled then filled, before being dipped in chocolate ganache and decorated with fresh raspberries and chocolate shavings as a final flourish.

Soft Naans, Warburtons

Convenience and versatility are the name of the game for these Soft Naans, which can be used as a meal accompaniment or as an alternative base for a homemade pizza. They can be warmed in the toaster in under two minutes, making them a convenient meal accompaniment option.

Warburtons has invested more than £400m in innovation over the last 10 years, with other recent launches including Crumpet Thins, the expansion of the 21 Seeds & Grains line into Thin Bagels, and Gluten Free Fruity Buns.

Jnck Cookies, Jnck Bakery

Jnck Bakery wants to redefine ‘junk food’ and launched non-HFSS cookies to help with that ambition.

Available in Milky Chocolate, Triple Chocolate, White Gold Chocolate, and White Ruby Chocolate variants, the business claims the range has 90% less sugar, 50% less saturated fat, three times more protein and five times more fibre, when comparing 100g of Jnck cookie with 100g of existing cookie products available in the supermarkets and foodservice.

This is the result of two years of research and has been achieved by using ingredients such as pea protein, prebiotic fibre, and a bespoke, low sugar, protein chocolate.

Superloaf 5.0, Modern Baker

Modern Baker partnered with Hovis and Marks & Spencer for the launch of Superloaf 5.0 – a mass produced version of what it previously dubbed the ‘healthiest loaf ever made’.

The loaf is co-manufactured and co-packaged by Hovis, and is made using the Chorleywood bread process, which posed a variety of technical and practical challenges to overcome. Unlike previous iterations of Superloaf, 5.0 uses standard white flour but is based around optimised fibres and utilises a ‘health-plus’ approach meaning it focuses on ingredients added rather than taken away. Ingredients include seed & fibre ferment (which contains linseeds), chia seeds, hemp fibre, and dark rye flour.

Modern Baker has big ambitions for its science-backed loaf, and was recently awarded £450k to apply the breakthrough Alt-Nutrition ingredient more widely in the formulation of other ultra-processed foods (UPF) including pastries, breakfast cereals, pasta, ready meals, and yoghurts.

Trifle Caked Alaska, M&S

M&S embraced the tradition with a twist trend as part of its Christmas range this year resulting in the creation of the Trifle Caked Alaska – trifle meets baked Alaska meets cake.

The frozen dessert features layers of sugar-soaked sponge, creamy custard semifreddo, raspberry sauce and whole raspberries, topped with soft peaked mallow and toasted almonds.

18-18° Flatbread

London-based brand 18-18° Flatbread has declared ‘frozen to be the new fresh’ after unveiling its self-titled creation which utilises Acoustic Extra Freezing (AEF) technology to ensure quality remains after freezing.

AEF has been developed by professional engineers specialising in the nano-crystallisation of frozen food. It involves an innovative process that sees special sound waves resonating through products during freezing, which limits the size and growth of ice crystals and instead makes them form on the outside of fibre cells. This prevents cell damage and dehydration of proteins, helping to preserve the nutrient composition, taste, and colour of the original product.

Currently, three different flatbreads are available – Cacio e Pepe (Pecorino cheese and black pepper); Goat’s Cheese, Fig & Honey; and Tomato & Oregano.

Snacking lattices, Higgidy

Higgidy embraced its recent success in the snacking arena with the roll out of a duo of snacking lattices in Sweet Potato Katsu Curry and Spinach, Feta & Red Pepper flavours.

The former (which was a finalist in the Free-from Bakery Product of the Year category at the 2023 Baking Industry Awards) comprises butternut squash puff pastry packed with sweet potato and cauliflower in a mildly-spiced katsu curry sauce, topped with black onion seeds. The latter features butternut squash puff pastry packed with spinach, Greek feta, red peppers, and a hint of mint and lemon, hand-topped with poppy seeds.

They’re perfect, according to Higgidy, for picnics, lunchtime bites and mid-afternoon snacking, and follow on from the launch of its savoury mini muffins in 2022.

Gluten-free Twix cookies, Mars

Mars Chocolate Drinks & Treats sought to tap into the opportunity for branded gluten-free sweet treats with NPD in the form of Galaxy Gluten Free Cookies and Twix Gluten Free Cookies.

The Galaxy cookies feature smooth chocolate while the Twix ones have chocolate and caramel pieces in them. They’re sold in packs of four and contain individually-wrapped cookies (30g each), which makes them ideal to consume at home or on-the-go.

Despite brands representing 69% of conventional cookie value sales, they account for only 30% of gluten-free cookie sales, said Mars highlighting the significant sales opportunity of £4.8m.