Fresh bakery items are hard to beat, whether they’re pastries, cakes, or a loaf of bread. The UK bakery market is worth £5 billion and is one of the largest markets in the food industry, reports the Federation of Bakers, with Greggs leading the way as the largest UK bakery chain. But it’s the independent bakeries and small-scale chains where many Britons flock to secure their freshly baked goods.
Among the estimated 27,910 bakeries in the UK is Blake’s Kitchen, a third-generation, family-run bakery café, food store and post office based in the village of Clanfield, on the edge of the Cotswolds. Express.co.uk spoke to its founder and bakery director, Nicola Cooper, to unveil exactly what keeps the cogs turning in Britain’s bakeries. Nicola said, “Depending on the day of the week, our bread baking starts between 3am and 4am.”
Nicola notes that the team wakes early to supply three café locations across Oxfordshire and a number of trade customers with the freshest bread, made with the Blake’s Kitchen trademark recipe, of course.
“Around Christmas, we sometimes start as early as midnight to keep up when demand for sourdough, cinnamon buns and seasonal bakes such as mince pies are at their highest”, said Nicola.
But it’s not just special occasions that see a high demand for some of Blake’s Kitchen specialities.
According to the bakery director, customers consistently purchase bread loaves: “We sell hundreds of loaves of sourdough every week from our relatively tiny oven, our Malt Crunch Sourdough rising in popularity after it was crowned “Best Multigrain Loaf” at the World Bread Awards.”
The bakery expert revealed that the “most popular product” is something surprising, however.
Nicola said, “It always and remains our cinnamon bun. We sell around 2,000 every week, each one rolled, cut, and baked by hand—not a task for the faint-hearted!”
It’s popular for good reason: the “soft sticky yet slightly spicy goodness” is something that “people just can’t get enough of,” said the founder of Blake’s Kitchen.
Seeing how happy they make people makes it all worth it, according to Nicola. “The best part is riffing with flavours – we have produced anything from a chocolate brownie bun, to Battenburg buns, to Christmas pudding buns”, revealed Nicola.
Other fan favourites include the chocolate Guinness cake, the recipe for which Nicola says she knows off by heart.
“It’s become such a regular feature you’ll rarely find the bakers with a recipe”.
While it’s easy to find delicious baked goods in the bakery, Nicola revealed that customers can ensure they bag the freshest cakes, bread, pastries, or cinnamon buns by being early birds.
She said: “Don’t wait until afternoon to visit your favourite bakery or you’ll be disappointed when they sell out.”
Nicola explained that the Blake’s Kitchen bakery products are best eaten fresh on the day.
“We use only natural ingredients and no preservatives or flour improvers, so they are not designed to sit in a packet for weeks unlike mass-produced baked goods”, she said.