Whether it starts as a hobby or an outright play into business, baking is one area where a lot of people have found a gateway into making money. Baked goods are very popular and the small sizes and quick nature of consumption make them great business products. Add to that the renewable demand and you have yourself a winning product. For those with skill in this area who haven’t quite found success or are looking for products to boost their businesses here’s a list of some popular items, you can sell.
Cakes
I had to start here. Cakes are very popular but the idea here goes a little further than cakes. Consider making speciality cakes. Just about every bakery sells a black forest cake but how many places can you find a shortbread tiramisu or a pavlova? Speciality cakes are niche products but they have the advantage of having die-hard fans behind them who are willing to pay top dollar. Take advantage of this market by introducing speciality cakes to the market. It would be a matter of trial and error through market research to find out which cakes command high demand at high prices.
Cake art
I had to separate this from cakes because there are a whole bunch of people out there who buy just cake art. You will see a lot of this for special occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries. Cake art and decor is really taking over. The reason why cake art is separated from cake making here is that sometimes cake artists do just the art and buy cakes ready-made to decorate. This is a smart business as you focus on your core business while leaving the quality of the cake to cake makers.
Muffins/cupcakes
Muffins and cupcakes are extremely popular in Zimbabwe as things stand. There are a few notable businesses that deliver cupcakes as gifts and it makes sense. Small, decadent and comparatively low priced, cupcakes make perfect gift ideas and favours. Now there are a lot of businesses doing this but I reckon the market has space for more. You can also differentiate yourself in the market with either the configurations in which you sell cupcakes, the decoration of them much like cakes or the accompanying items in the packages. There’s still a lot of space for innovative ideas in this space.
Pies
Zimbabwe has a long-standing love affair with pies. That is more with savoury pies though. Dessert pies aren’t quite as popular commercially. The demise of beloved Pork Pie to “pork iri payi” (where is the pork) jokes presented some gaps in the market. Pies are popular and fast-moving. Unlike other items we have mentioned so far pies aren’t really something people plan well in advance to buy and are more likely to be impulse buys. However, we can not rule them out from for order business. Of the items on this list pies also represent the best opportunity to supply retailers with your products.
Cookies
These are ridiculously underrated snack items that also happen to be very easy to make. There’s a market opportunity for someone selling giant cookie’s and you can really make a go of it if you go adventurous with your flavours and recipes. As cookies aren’t quite established you’ll have a bit of work to do.in terms of branding and building awareness as compared to the cupcake and pie business. However, it should be well worth it if you can establish yourself in the market. There’s also the consideration of whether to provide fresh cookies which should generally be eaten within a day or two of being baked and longer-lasting cookies, the type we are accustomed to seeing on supermarket shelves.
There’s a wide world of baked goods that are popular in the market. These 5 are the most popular that present opportunities to make money at premium prices.
