Dan Jones, Marketing Manager at British Bakels, explores how ingredient innovation is enabling bakers to enhance efficiency, maintain quality, and respond swiftly to emerging trends
How do you see ingredient innovation enabling bakers to balance speed, creativity, and consistent quality?
Innovation in ingredients sits at the heart of today’s fast-paced bakery sector. With tastes shifting from nostalgic puddings to viral flavour mash-ups overnight, bakers need solutions that help them move quickly without adding complexity. At British Bakels, innovation means developing products that take the complexity out of creativity. Whether you’re a craft baker or managing large-scale production, the goal is the same: to achieve consistent, high-quality results that can adapt to changing trends.
We’ve seen that first-hand with trends like Dubai Chocolate and the continued rise of nostalgic favourites such as tiramisu and cherry. When something takes off, it’s the bakers who can adapt their ranges quickly, using ingredients that perform well and consistently; and who really capture the opportunity. That’s where ingredient innovation becomes a true competitive advantage, not just a product development tool.
Can you share how British Bakels’ product development philosophy ensures both adaptability and efficiency?
Our philosophy is about making life easier for bakers. Everything we create starts with understanding their everyday challenges – whether that’s time, storage, consistency or scalability. From there, our development team focuses on adaptability: can this product perform across formats, from doughnuts to desserts? Can it cope with heat, cold, freezing, or whipping? And can it be customised quickly to suit a flavour or seasonal trend?
Efficiency is about more than just time saved. It’s about giving bakers confidence that the product will deliver the same result every time, even in different environments. As part of the wider Bakels Group, we’re constantly investing in R&D and facilities to ensure our ingredients are not only innovative but practical. That’s how we bridge creativity and consistency in real-world bakery operations.
What makes Ready-to-Use Mallow unique, and how does it open up new possibilities for seasonal and trend-driven product development?
Ready-to-Use Mallow represents a genuine industry first. This soft-set, ambient-stable, vegetarian-friendly mallow offers a creamy vanilla flavour and a rich, indulgent texture. Its ease of flavouring, colouring, and handling makes it a versatile foundation for creative applications. It can be piped, spread, injected, whipped to achieve a glossy shine, or lightly torched to produce a distinctive golden, meringue-style crust.
What’s exciting is how it enables bakers to move faster with trend-led launches. Whether that’s a pumpkin spice version for autumn, pink Valentine’s editions, or ube-inspired twists, the product makes it easy to experiment and react to social media-driven demand. We designed it to be as flexible as possible, so bakers can use it to elevate both traditional favourites and new concepts without needing new equipment or complex processes.
Applications already include teacakes with a lightly torched crown, doughnuts filled with a soft, gooey centre, and wagon wheel–style sandwiches featuring cherry or tiramisu flavours. Cookies stay soft after baking, while tarts are finished with a smooth, whipped topping. Each tub functions as a filling, topping or finishing component, helping teams streamline preparation and reduce the need for multiple ingredients. Its versatility in colour and texture enhances visual appeal, such as pastel spring tones, Valentine’s pink, or an ube-inspired lilac. Light toasting adds a delicate meringue-style crust for a premium finish. For development teams, being able to pipe, spread, inject or whip from one base simplifies trials, speeds up approvals and supports faster seasonal or limited-edition launches.
In day-to-day bakery operations, what practical advantages does Ready-to-Use Mallow offer compared with traditional preparation methods?
Convenience without compromise is the simplest way to describe it. There’s no mixing, no whipping, and no need for stabilisers, bakers can literally open the pail and start using it straight away. That’s a huge time saver, particularly when you consider how unpredictable hand-made mallow can be. Every batch comes out with the same light, fluffy texture and set, removing the variability that can creep in when you’re making it from scratch.
It’s also ambient-stable, which frees up valuable fridge space, and it’s freeze–thaw stable too, making it ideal for frozen or delivered products. We’ve even seen it used as a cream replacement in chilled desserts, which is a real bonus for operations where chilled storage is limited. The result is greater efficiency across the board, without any sacrifice on indulgence or visual appeal.
Read the full interview in our latest issue here
