Did you know that September is the busiest month for birthdays? That's why we're offering lots more choice in our cake range at this time of year. When we're looking for inspiration for our new launches in bakery we don't just look at food trends, we also consider what's big in homeware, fashion and stationery – as well as trends like unicorns which are still hugely popular everywhere now.
We’re always visiting new bakeries and restaurants to take inspiration from launches across the country and even futher afield. It's a really fun area to work in!
Our innovations team flagged to us that Chicago is a great foodie destination right now, so we took a trip out there in January. It was freezing – about –20C! We noticed while we were out there that American trends right now are really bright and colourful, so we tried to use some of those elements in the new additions to our range.
We've just launched our new Candyland cake and that was very much led by what we saw out there – the American-inspired sweet shop style, with bright colours and fully-loaded toppings. It's a real crowd pleaser – multi-layered Madeira cake filled and covered with yellow frosting, then decorated with blue frosting and a shower of sweets. Pick one up for £13 in store and online.
We always consider how we can incorporate a bit more fun into your birthday and make the whole experience more special and hands-on
We also saw quite a few trends around space and the galaxy and that's now come across to the UK as we're seeing a lot of it in homeware. Our new Cosmic homeware range is already a big hit with customers so it made sense to create our new Cosmic cake – a spectacularly soft chocolate sponge covered in marvellous soft icing and topped with dazzling solid chocolate jewels for £11.
It's a really beautiful cake and is sure to appeal to adults and kids alike. This one is my favourite because it's stunning and I love the solid chocolate gemstones on the top which are really delicious – I've probably eaten far too many of them!
We're always looking for interactivity in our range. Things like our Smash Cakes, where you crack through a chocolate dome to find sweet treats inside, have been really popular recently. Building on that, we always consider how we can incorporate a bit more fun into your birthday and make the whole experience more special and hands-on.
So we've added our Creepy Crawly cake for £13, which has been created to look like a mud pile with gummy worms on the top. The cake also comes with tweezers with a little light in them, so when you pick up the gummy sweets from the top of the cake they light up the insects and make them glow. So when you've turned the lights out and you're singing happy birthday it looks amazing! It's quite fun and interactive but it's not too messy either – you can have a bit of fun with the kids but it won't mess up the actual cake design.
When we're creating the range we're always conscious that even though everybody has a birthday, it's perhaps a bigger thing with children. But given how many birthdays we see in September we want to make sure that we're giving everyone an option, because everyone deserves to have a nice cake that they love on their birthday!
Take a look at our great range of celebration cakes in store and online now.
