A pumpkin & dulce de leche doughnut, a coconut & winter melon mooncake, and a pecan, salted caramel & marmite blondie are among the latest launches of sweet bakery innovations.
There are also brand collaborations galore in our round-up featuring a bakers’ dozen of new biscuits, doughnuts, cakes, traybakes, and pastries.
Scroll down to check out more details on each NPD rolled out recently for retail and foodservice:
Tim Tam White, Arnott’s
Australia’s ‘favourite chocolaty biscuit’ brand Tim Tam – created over 60 years ago and inspired from British biscuit royalty, Penguins – has continued to expand its UK range in line with its antipodean offering.
The Tim Tam White was first rolled out in Oz as part of a limited-edition run for Christmas 2000, proving popular enough to become a permanent fixture there in 2002. They comprise crunchy white biscuits with a velvety cream centre layer, enveloped in a smooth white chocolatey flavour coating.
Manufacturer Arnott’s claimed it received “countless social media pleas” to bring the White variety to these shores, leading to their recent launch on Sainsbury’s shelves nationwide (rsp: £2.50 per pack).
Tim Tam’s successful introduction to the UK market last year has been followed up by a strong NPD pipeline in 2025, including Extra Chocolaty, Sweet & Salty, and Gluten Free Tim Tam Originals varieties unveiled.
Bennie the Birthday Cake, Asda
TikTok-trending Jellycat plushies are the inspiration behind the retailer’s new character birthday cake, Benny.
Designed to be the ultimate celebration centrepiece, serving 18 people (rsp: £14.98), the cute cake is made with soft sponge layers filled with raspberry jam, covered in vanilla frosting, and topped with an edible candy melt candle and fondant-style feet.
Asda noted that #Jellycat content has generated over one billion TikTok views, with UK searches for ‘Jellycat’ rising 95% year-on-year and ‘Jellycat near me’ up 338%. The cuddly toys appear to appeal to both kids and adults, with celebrity collectors including Princess Charlotte, Harper Beckham, and Kylie Jenner.
Stiletto biscuits, Biscuiteers
The latest high-end fashion collaboration from hand-iced biscuit specialist Biscuiteers sees it put down Lulu Guinness handbags and slip into Spanish shoe brand Manolo Blahnik.
The collection of three different stiletto vanilla biscuits are said to have been inspired by Blahnik’s Marie Antoinette Style exhibition of new shoe designs running at the Victoria & Albert Museum. They are being sold in a bespoke biscuit tin (rsp: £41.95) illustrated with the designer’s own personal sketches.
London-based Biscuiteers is among the five finalists – all sweet treat specialists – vying for the Online Bakery Business of the Year trophy at next month’s Baking Industry Awards 2025.
Bubble Waffles, Brakes
Foodservice wholesaler Brakes has launched a new range of on-trend bubble waffles, the street food treat that has origins dating back to 1950s Hong Kong.
Having recently been grabbing global appeal thanks to social media, the waffles are traditionally served with ice cream, fruit, or sweet sauces, but can be given a savoury twist by filling with the likes of chicken, cheese, or bacon. Sold frozen in packs of 20 (rsp: £32.49), the waffles require an hour’s defrosting or just around minute each in the microwave.
“Bubble waffles are the latest must-have for menus, but, until now, chefs have needed specialist equipment to make them,” noted Paul Nieduszynski, CEO of Brakes owner Sysco GB. “The new range of Sysco Classic Bubble Waffles gives food businesses the opportunity to capitalise on the hype, without the capital investment.”
Mooncakes, Bun House
Cantonese cuisine specialist Bun House has created two new flavours of mooncakes – Coconut Winter Melon and Pistachio Cookie – to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, which lands on 6 October this year.
The pair of innovations will accompany two returning fan favourite flavours – Red Bean and Lava Custard – in a handwoven basket of eight mooncakes (rsp: £42) that can be ordered online for home delivery or purchased at its shops in London’s Chinatown and Shoreditch.
Mooncakes are Chinese sweet bakery treats traditionally shared between family members during the annual Mid-Autumn Festival, which occurs on a full moon coinciding with the time of harvest. The round shape of the cakes is said to symbolise reunion, completeness, and harmony.
Autumnal doughnuts and cookie, Crosstown x Loaf
Another sweet treat specialist cycling through brand collaborations is Crosstown. The London-based company already teamed with beauty brand NYX and plant-based sweets Candy Kitten to launch limited-edition sourdough doughnuts earlier this year, and now cosies up with Battersea born sofa brand Loaf for a seasonal collection of goodies priced from £3.45.
There’s the Autumn Leaves Pumpkin Dulce de Leche doughnut, featuring a cake base made with real pumpkin, lightly spiced with nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger, and filled with creamy dulce de leche. The vegan Rosy Posy Rhubarb Custard & Raspberry doughnut is filled with handmade raspberry & rhubarb compote and glazed with raspberry-infused rhubarb icing, topped with a vegan vanilla buttercream crown and dollop of rhubarb compote with lemon zest sprinkle.
The vegan Pudding Spoon Apple Crumble doughnut, meanwhile, has a Bramley apple compote filling spiced with Zanzibar cinnamon and vanilla, and is topped with vegan vanilla icing, swirls of buttercream and golden crumble. Completing the autumnal line-up is the Mixing Bowl Praline Pecan Cookie, a chewy sourdough cookie topped with pecan cream and garnished with a pecan praline.
Handmade fresh daily at Crosstown’s Battersea bakery, the new items are available until mid-October at its stores in London, Cambridge, and Oxford as well as via its app and website.
Squashies flavoured cheesecake, English Cheesecake Company
The sweet brand partnerships carry on, this time between a Northwest London cheesecake specialist and confectionary maker Swizzels. The English Cheesecake Company has mimicked the raspberry and milk flavours of Squashies Drumsticks for respective layers of cheesecake atop its signature crunchy biscuit base. It is then topped with a white chocolate drizzle and pink sprinkles.
Packs of two slices (rsp: £3.75) are being sold at Sainsbury’s stores for a limited time only. They join the brand’s Collaboration Collection range, which includes Lemon & Mascarpone, Salted Caramel & Honeycomb, and the best-selling Vanilla & Biscoff flavours.
The English Cheesecake Company has also just launched a Banoffee Pie Cheesecake (rsp: £3.75, two slices) into Morrisons and Sainsbury’s. It features a layer each of smooth banana and caramel infused cheesecake on a biscuit base, topped with milk chocolate shavings.
Gluten-free mini cakes and muffins, Just Love
Free-from bakery supplier Just Love has created six new sweet treats, made without gluten, nuts, or milk, for an exclusive launch into Brakes. These include Victoria, Carrot, and Chocolate Square Cakes, as well as Blueberry & Lemon and Chocolate Muffins, and Confetti Cupcakes.
It marks the first time the South Wales-based manufacturer has produced small format, individually wrapped items, having usually stuck to celebration cakes including the gluten-free Happy Birthday Cake which won Free-from Bakery Product of the Year in 2023.
In addition, Just Love have gained an Ocado listing for its new Classic Collection Gift Set, which batches one each of its free-from square cakes – Victoria, Carrot, and Chocolate – into a three-pack (rsp: £5.50).
Pecan & Salted Caramel Blondies, M&S
Brand collaborations are taken to the next level, taste-wise, as M&S ties up with yeast extract spread Marmite for its new sweet (and a little savoury) treats.
Nutty pecan tiffin is infused with a hint of Marmite, then layered with fudgy white chocolate blondie and finished with a swirl of salted caramel sauce. They are available in M&S stores, priced at £5 for a two-pack (185g). If you can’t get enough of the flavour combination, the retailer is also selling bottles of Caramel Sauce & Marmite.
Vegan loaf cake and doughnuts, Pipp & Co
Following on from its first vegan doughnut debuted earlier this year, Swindon-based Pipp & Co has expanded its plant-based range with a new vegan banana & walnut loaf plus four more vegan doughnut flavours.
A trial of the loaf cake, made with 45% real bananas and walnuts, at its Bristol café proved successful, so it has now gone on general sale to wholesalers, stockists, caterers and via its website. It can be sold whole or in slices.
Pipp & Co has also added new vegan doughnuts in flavours of lemon & pistachio, mango & Tajin, raspberry & basil, and rhubarb & ginger. “In the last three months, we have produced more than 20,600 vegan doughnuts a clear sign that demand for delicious vegan options is growing and here to stay,” commented co-founder Mario Evangelista.
The company has also recently completed its first audit to attain SALSA certification, which opens the doors for continued growth in wholesale supply.
Finest cookies, Tesco
As revealed by Tesco’s in-store bakery sweet buying manager Nathan Scott on LinkedIn, the retailer has spent over a year and a “true cross-functional effort” in reimaging its Finest cookies range, which includes milk chocolate, triple chocolate, white chocolate, oat & flame raisin, and triple chocolate shortbread varieties (rsp: £2 per four-pack for Clubcard members).
Updated recipes feature the highest ever chocolate inclusion levels, whilst the oat & raisin cookie is assured to be “sensationally moist”. They also been out in premium, clear, minimalist packaging that “let’s the product speak for itself”, according to Scott, who also noted a change to visual merchandising principles for in-store bakery.
Biscoff Crunch Croissant, Soho Coffee
Biscoff is arguably one of the least surprising brand collaborators on this NPD list – it’s already in so many sweet bakery products. But the caramelised biscuit from Lotus Bakeries has been put to good use in the new croissant at Soho Coffee’s UK stores.
The flaky pastry (rsp: from £3.25) is both filled and topped with Biscoff Spread, accompanied by a satisfying crunch from Biscoff Crumb. “We wanted to create something that really showcases the Biscoff taste that people love, while giving it our own Soho Coffee twist,” said Mary Rotsching, product developer at Soho Coffee.
In fact, Soho and Lotus are old friends, having partnered since 2023 on a range of Biscoff laden menu items that include a cronut (doughnut-croissant hybrid), hot chocolate, and shake, which are still sold to this day.
Wee Shorties variants, Walker’s Shortbread
The Speyside shortbread specialist (if that’s not too much of a tongue twister) has made two new additions to its bite-sized Wee Shorties range, which came out a little over a year ago.
The round Mini Chocolate Chip Wee Shorties bring a rich and indulgent variant to the range, while the new triangular shaped Mini Oat Shortbread Wee Shorties give a nod to Walker’s Scottish heritage through the inclusion of oats.
The company noted that, in recent years, it has achieved sales growth and broadened its shopper base through attracting a new generation of consumers. These include busy individuals balancing work-life commitments and time-strapped shoppers seeking moments of pleasure in their day.
Each priced at £2 for a pack of six, the Chocolate Chip variety is available at Waitrose and the Oat Shortbread variety is being sold at Sainsbury’s, with both newcomers listed by Ocado.
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