Sustainability as responsibility

Local and sustainable sometimes get lumped together, but some bakers are beginning to understand that the consumer motivation isn't the same. Locality has roots in civic or cultural pride and patronage, while sustainability is a tenet of the environmental movement. Buying sustainable is a social and environmental responsibility for some.

“Sustainability goes beyond what the localvore will want and for different reasons,” says Michelle Garcia, owner of Bleeding Heart Bakery, Chicago. “Local will ask if a product was made within a certain halo of miles, but sustainable will ask if it was organic and sustainable, and will support organic and sustainable farmers from across the country, even at the expense of locality.”

Garcia chose a distant, sustainable sugar producer over a non-sustainable, local producer because of what sheand many of her customers believe.

“People just know so much more about sustainability than they did 10 years ago. Here in Chicago, it has been a complete 180,” Garcia says. “I used to have to tell people what it was, but thanks, probably in large part to TV and the programs on the Food Network, sustainable is a trait people actively seek out within their communities.”

Perks of coffee and tea

The coffee and tea trend isn't really new, but it isn't going anywhere. Thanks to chains like Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts, people are willing to pay for premium coffee and beverages.

“This year we introduced flavored iced teas, such as pomegranate iced tea, and people were buying it,” Conforti says. “It has become more habitual and more commonplace for people to seek out these specialty beverages. They act as treats of sorts, but they are not perceived as the indulgences that desserts are.”

Julie Bashore, founder of the House of Clarendon in Lancaster, Pa., thinks while premium coffee is an expectation now, tea is really more of a fashion. “It has had a lot of media attention about how good it is for the immune system, and that got some people to swing away from coffee and toward tea. There are so many Anglophiles in the U.S. that tea has become fashionable.”

The addition of a gourmet coffee program or line of teas requires an investment in equipment and dedication to promotion, but foodservice bakers position hot beverages as a premium part of their product lines. “People's expectation levels for coffee and tea have risen exponentially in the past 10 years,” Conforti says. “Their expectations are especially high for a dessert or pastry shop where desserts and hot beverages seem to go hand and glove.”

Appeal to nostalgia

The red velvet cakes Mom made at Christmas and the cupcakes she made for your birthday are making a comeback. Whether you call it kitsch or comfort, the old favorites need a little sprucing up for today's consumer.

“I read something in the news lately that a lot of it might have to do with the downturn in the economy, but there is definitely a trend where people are looking for comfort food,” Grove says. “It's not confined to bakery either; restaurants across the board are tweaking their menus to include some comfort food.”

Grove believes his customers are in need of a momentary escape in reality that makes them feel good for the rest of the day. He went after this nostalgic market by revisiting the products he enjoyed as a child. He offers a rocky road candy bar, whoopie pies and a “Twinkie™ on steroids” made to closely resemble the original, banana-flavored Twinkies.

“The trend seems to be toward the things we ate as a kid tailored for the more sophisticated palate of the modern consumer,” Grove says.

More Cupcakes, a Chicago bakery, is a spot-on manifestation of Grove's read on the nostalgia trend. Owner Patricia Rothman and pastry chefs Todd Maturatai and Gale Gand designed a menu of more than 60 cupcake varieties, taking Mom's old standby to new places. Comfort flavors include red velvet, carrot cake and maple/brown sugar. A savory line includes more adventurous flavors like curry, B.L.T. and bleu cheese.

Rothman also developed a line of miniature cupcakes sold in flights of six or more, making More Cupcakes a good example of the miniature trend, as well.

Breakfast is back

With a variety of products and varying degree of success, Dunkin' Donuts, McDonald's, Au Bon Pain and Starbucks tried to build new inroads into the morning daypart this year. “Breakfast really is the new lunch,” says Tom Gumpel, R&D analyst with Panera Bread Co., St. Louis. “People love breakfast, and increasingly, it's the meal to eat out.”