About Bakedin
My name is Joe Munns and I am one of the founders of a little home baking company called Bakedin.
We are based in Basingstoke and make top notch home baking kits and micro baking mixes which we sell online and through a number of prestigious retailers such as Selfridges, Lakeland and Wholefoods.
We are also in around 150 smaller retailers around the UK (you may have spotted us locally in Newlyns or Manydown farm shops) and sourcing local wherever we can is something that’s really important to us.
All our flour comes from Wessex Mill, who get their wheat from California farm near Newbury…and Saddleback Farm Shop based on California farm was our first ever stockist!
Of course not everything is from the fields surrounding Bakedin HQ – we buy our chocolate from Belgium and our Vanilla from Madagascar – because it tastes great!
I don’t have children myself, but was introduced to the NHM community through a couple of my local friends who do.
Earlier in the year we advertised a recipe developer job on NorthHantsMum and were inundated with fantastic applicants, so I thought I’d introduce the business a little bit more and tell you about some of the exciting plans we have for the next few months.
Why Baking?
When we first created the business we thought it’s mission was to help time poor people bake with as little hassle as possible (our original tagline was “Home Baking Made Simple”).
Myself and co-founder Anna both love cooking and both worked long hours in demanding jobs. We wished rustling up a cake, from scratch, to take into work the next day could be a bit easier.
As things evolved and we had the opportunity to talk to more of our customers we realised that whilst convenience was important, it wasn’t what it was all about.
The Great British Bake Off final last year had more viewers than the world cup final and this year viewing numbers were even higher – the nation LOVES baking!
We decided to probe a little more into reasons that people love to bake and learned a couple of interesting facts.
Satisfaction and pride come out as the number one reason for baking at home and I can relate to that – there is nothing like seeing a batch of light fluffy cinnamon buns come out the oven that you have kneaded, risen and baked from scratch (plus it makes the house smell amazing!).
Following on from that is relaxation – so many of us are stressed out with modern life that a bit of quality baking time in the kitchen goes a long way to taking the edge off and helping to unwind.
Our baking kits are often bought as an activity to do with children – having all the ingredients in the right quantities saves a bit of time and takes some of the risk out whilst retaining all the fun bits.
Baking is also a great way of getting children interested in cooking from an early age, as well as the bonus of being educational.
We’ve still retained the convenience angle, especially in our micro-baking range – bake yourself a brownie, cake or cookie in a mug in the microwave in less than 2 minutes.
These are actually our best sellers and super popular as gifts, evening treats or an alternative to an instant coffee during break time at work! Check out our whole range at www.bakedin.co.uk/bake-shop.
The Baking Club
Whilst the business has been around since 2013, as a hobby for myself and my co-founders, I took the plunge in June this year and quit the day job to work on Bakedin full time.
I was fortunate to get an introduction to Michel Roux from one of our shareholders (who as luck would have it was his clay pigeon shooting teacher).
He loved the business and offered to assist us create recipes for both our retail range and the Baking Club.
The Baking Club has been in the development stage for a long time and Michel’s excitement about the project was the motivation we needed for the final push to get it ready for sale.
For £9.99 you get a unique recipe created by Michel, all the dry ingredients you need as well a few handy extras to help you make delicious cakes and bakes at home.
We’ll even deliver it to your door for free!
You may also find some surprise freebies – we try to keep everything under wraps until the boxes arrive – but I’ll let you into a secret – our December box will have a sample of a new mug baking product we have invented for Christmas.
We’d love to have you in the club, so if you want to give it a try then until 30th November you can use the code NHMDISCOUNT to get your first box for just £3.99!
Baking Jobs
We are likely to have a vacancy for a salesperson in the New Year, as well as some opportunities for work experience students and maybe an apprenticeship too.
We will definitely be looking to organise some focus groups with local mums and dads to help us develop a new product aimed directly at children – so if these are things that sound right up your street then keep an eye on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/bakedincakes).
Don’t forget, if you want to give our baking club a go, then until November the 30th you can use the code NHMDISCOUNT at the checkout to get your first box for just £3.99!
If you ever want to know more then drop us an email at team@bakedin.co.uk, we’d love to hear from you :o)
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