As Britain gets ready for the next series of the popular TV competition, The Great British Bake Off, retailers are trying to second guess what hit ingredients the show will introduce.
The seventh in the series will start on Wednesday. This series rising on the horizon will undoubtedly cause a stir, with bakers beating a hasty path to specialist retailers.
Supermarkets are making efforts to ensure that key baking essentials, such as icing sugar, vanilla extract, and yeast, are widely available. Morrisons has even appointed its own, and Britain’s first known, dedicated “bake officer” to guarantee supply and respond to sudden demand for unexpected ingredients.
Last year, many members of the public were suddenly keen on sourcing unexpected items which featured in some of the baked goods. Crystallised ginger, superfruit goldenberries from Peru and salted caramel along with anti-gravity cakes were all the rage.
The “Delia effect” has become the “Bake Off effect” and both produce higher sales in traditional as well as novel items.
All the leading UK supermarkets and cookware retailers are believed to have strengthened their buying teams and all will be paying rapt attention to the baking ingredients aired on the programme.
“The Great British Bake Off is now the third most important event in the nation’s home-baking calendar, beaten only by Christmas and Easter,” said Tim Shaw, baking buyer at Waitrose.
During the previous series, Waitrose said the sales of goldenberries zoomed up 180%, ground almonds by 161% and crystallised ginger soared higher by 315%.
Morrisons reported a dramatic 163% increase in sales of glace cherries and a 110% rise in almond extract sales.
