With Halloween spending in the UK reaching over £1bn last year, this spooky time provides plenty of opportunities for bakers to tap into the demand for lower-cost treats as Dawn Foods reveals.
Embrace it, or avoid it, there is no escaping Halloween. Following America’s lead, Halloween has gained massive popularity in the UK in recent years – and is fast becoming one of the biggest sales opportunities after Easter and Christmas.
However, the cost-of-living crisis means many consumers may not be quite so willing to part with their hard-earned cash on expensive Halloween merchandise this year. Global Data’s report on the UK Halloween market states that the proportion of consumers buying any item for Halloween in 2023 declined, falling to 40.2% versus 2022. Food was the only category in which penetration increased year-on-year, as consumers opted for low-cost celebrations amid pressures on their personal finances.
The growth in popularity of Halloween-themed food is good news for the bakery sector as Kantar Profiles/Mintel, May 2024 points out; while consumers may “cut back on big indulgences, they are still keen on affordable treats to bring joy to special occasions”. The research says 33% of buyers purchase cakes and sweet baked goods to celebrate events such as birthdays or anniversaries and 25% to mark seasonal celebrations such as Christmas and Halloween. Indeed, despite the headline statistics of big spending at this time of the year, figures from Finder say that 2 in 3 of Britons plan to spend £20 or less or nothing at all, on Halloween.
Themed cakes are fun, feel-good and low cost and represent a ‘quick win’ in this category – which is positive for bakers.
Social-savvy Gen Z drive Halloween
The expansion of Halloween as a concept in the UK has been driven in recent years by the Gen Z demographic and the growth of social media. Halloween is a highly visual celebration with ghouls, ghosts and spooks, driven by the mass celebration on 31 October that is perfect for sharing on social media platforms. Finder states that the biggest spend on Halloween is among the Gen Z age group and the significance of social media even filters down to bakery purchasing. Dawn Foods’ Global Bakery Trends Survey revealed that nearly 72% of Gen Z consumers surveyed said that content seen on social media would influence their purchase of sweet baked goods.
“Life for Gen Z is about exploring experiences – these consumers want to try fresh and disruptive food ingredients they have learnt about online and are ready for adventure. And nothing could provide more opportunity for experimentation than Halloween,” explains Jacqui Passmore, marketing lead West EU & AMEAP at Dawn Foods.
“The challenge for the baking industry, is to keep up with such a fast-moving dynamic. A flavour or concept can be on-trend one minute and old hat the next. Limited-edition products are a great way for bakers to test out new and exciting flavours and textures to attract younger consumers”.
Keep it limited-edition
The trick is to keep the bakery offering simple and to focus on limited-edition bakes rather than buying in lots of additional ingredients or devising complex new recipes.
“While Halloween is a profitable seasonal event, it is also a short window of opportunity, so it is important to think practically about how best to use the ingredients that you may already use in your bakery,” explains Passmore. “Use mixes, icings or frostings, for example, which you can use for other bakes and desserts across the year, and add in some Halloween-themed extras to make your offering really stand out.
“Transforming bakery regulars can be as easy as changing fondants or icings to orange, purple or green, adding ‘spooky’ themed decorations or including seasonal flavour twists such as pumpkin. A plain cupcake can become an eye-catching Halloween-themed cake with a swirl of orange frosting and ready-to-use chocolate decorations – simple but effective.
“It’s all about pick-me-up appeal and fun, particularly for targeting the children and the family market. It’s certainly a time to go to town creatively with Instagram-worthy bakes. Utilise your own social media platforms to market the Halloween creations to potential customers.”
Dawn also recommends making bakes bite-size, not only for younger consumers but for those who like to indulge with a small, sweet bakery treat. Concerns about health and controlling the purse strings means that increasingly consumers are turning to smaller sized cakes; it is a chance to indulge without feeling too guilty. Indeed, Mintel’s Cakes, Cake Bars and Sweet Baked Goods Report 2024, states that 76% of eaters and buyers of cakes/sweet bakes prefer a small amount of an indulgent cake over a large portion of a healthier one. Going mini is also an opportunity for consumers try out new flavours or formats and, as a result, a limited-edition bake that works at Halloween may be rolled out in a slightly different format at another eating occasion or time of year.
FangTastic ideas
Dawn is urging bakers to be creative with their bakery range and have fun, experiment with flavours and flavour combinations too. It’s the perfect time to dial up the flavours of the autumn such as pumpkin, cinnamon and nutmeg, but also flavours bakers may not have thought of at Halloween such as apple, citrus and chocolate. For autumn, Dawn Foods is launching a limited-edition Black Forest Frosting which not only combines all the flavours of the 1970s classic dessert but with a distinct red-chocolate hue which works well in spooky season bakes.
A simple donut can become a Terrifying Toffee Apple Treat by filling it with Dawn Delifruit Daily Apple Filling, and then topping with caramel-flavoured Glossy Icing and chocolate bat decorations. Ingredients from Dawn’s authentic American range can be used for some other ideas too, such as Spooky Eye Blondies – a Blondie square topped with orange coloured icing – or Souplesse flexible orange coating and spooky chocolate ‘eye’ decorations. Or try Vampire Cookies – cookies made with Dawn Prairie Vanilla Cookie Base which have been cut in half, and filled with Vanilla Frosting (coloured pink with food colouring) with mini marshmallows used to resemble a mouth full of vampire ‘teeth’.
While the spookily spectacular puns may be predictable, Halloween bakery need not be too.
For more information about Dawn Foods please visit www.dawnfoods.com/uk
