Shopping: No tricks, just lots of yummy treats!

Oct 18 2010 By Emma McKinney

With shoppers splashing millions of pounds in the run up to Halloween, Consumer Editor Emma McKinney visits a Birmingham bakery to find out what treats it’s dishing up on October 31.

ANN McDermard picks up a giant piping bag and effortlessly swings it into action, delicately dribbling opulent orange icing on top of cups of chocolate-covered cornflakes.

The skilled baker’s decades of experience shines through as she ices a quick succession of culinary treats as they speedily pass by on a conveyor belt.

And she has to be quick given that the Eyeball Cornflake Cakes she is helping to create are among more than 700,000 tasty snacks (fortunately with no real eyeballs involved) that Greggs bakery in Saltley, Birmingham, will produce in just four weeks in the run up to Halloween.

The spooky event is fast becoming one of the UK’s biggest dates in the consumer calender, with research showing more than £300 million worth of food and drink was sold in Britain in the three weeks up to October 31 last year.

“Without doubt this is one of the busiest times of the year for us, even bigger than Christmas,” says Jan Foryszewski, manager of the bakery.

In fact, it’s so huge that a crack team of Greggs chefs and experts have spent six months painstakingly researching, designing and testing scores of potential Halloween products.

“We look at what lines have sold well and what other competitors have done in previous years and then take into account what customers have told us they want to help us come up with a range, and that’s then subjected to rigorous product and taste tests,” adds Jan.

Now it’s up to Jan’s team of 120 bakers to work around the clock to make up to 50,000 Halloween treats a day up until October 31.

Among the treats that the bakery’s 40 drivers are delivering to stores across the Midlands are Toffee Apple Lattices, stuffed with diced apple in a sumptuously sweet sauce; Spooky Ring Buns, dipped in orange fondant and rolled in sugar strands before being finished off with ghostly toy rings; and Bat Biscuits made from ginger and covered in chocolate.

There’s Monster Mallows, toffee-flavoured biscuits covered with strawberry jam and marshmallow; delicious Creepy Cupcakes; and for those without a sweet tooth there’s even a savoury Halloween-themed treat in the form of a fiery Chilli Steak Lattice pasty.