Valentine’s is over with for this year, so what’s next?

Well in the bakery our next big sales event is the Easter trade.

I personally love Easter and the Hot X Buns. But, bakeries make a lot more than just hot x buns for Easter. Many bakeries make their own Easter Eggs. Many more make chocolates as well as Easter breads.

Some bakeries will buy their Easter Eggs from a supplier and then offer to put a customers name on the egg to personalize it for an added charge. This is an excellent way to address client satisfaction.

It is also another way to offer a free service, such as buy your Easter Eggs here “and have your child’s name added for free”.

Hot X Buns are a traditional item that every bakery should be making from today until at least a couple days after the Easter period. The supermarkets have been selling hot x buns for several weeks now and they are usually small and often stale with what i call insipid paper crosses. These paper crosses are often burnt or almost totally invisible on the bun. The reason for that is the crosses are made from rice paper. Rice paper absorbs moister and if the proofer was high in steam then the cross will absorb that moisture and burn within the heat of the oven.

A far better method to making the cross is to use a batter and pipe the crosses onto the buns. This can be done very quickly and very neatly and providing there is no sugar in the batter it should bake white to give the perfect cross.