BakeMark launches butter-margarine baking blends on UK market

Its Optinature Melanges, which come in a cake variety and a pastry variety, are a mixture of approximately 20 per cent butter and 80 per cent margarine. BakeMark UK claims this butter-margarine mix is a new concept in the British bakery fats market.

The company is marketing the new products as luxury, all-natural, easy-to-use alternatives to other bakery fats, emphasising their “satisfying buttery taste”​ when used in pastries and “delicate and understated buttery taste”​ for cakes. The packaging has been designed to reduce bakers’ preparation time.

BakeMark UK’s artisan marketing manager David Astles told BakeryandSnacks.com: “​The key difference between the Optinature Pastry Melange and Optinature Cake Melange lies in the usage that they are designed for and how they are both packaged and produced to save bakers time in production.”​

The Optinature Pastry Melange is sold in sheets to allow fast application to puff pastry products, and the Optinature Cake Melange is sold in blocks for easy weighing and cutting.

International precedent​

“BakeMark UK produced the Opinature Melanges in order to provide bakers with a product that combines both high performance with premium taste. Being part of a European company and knowledge network, BakeMark UK has noted a significant growth in demand for melanges and the positive response that similar products have received internationally,” ​he said.

He explained that BakeMark UK had undertaken market research before launching the products, in order to establish what bakers wanted from fats, and then undertook in-bakery trials. This helped to determine the exact mix and packaging of the products.​

“The unique combination of butter and margarine is a mix that has been developed in order to create a product that reaps the benefits of both the performance of margarine and the premium taste of butter,”​ said Astles.

Broader range​

The new fat blends are part of BakeMark’s Craigmillar brand which also incorporates cake mixes, cream alternatives, fillings, toppings and mallows. The Optinature Cake Melange is available in packs of four 2.5kg blocks and the Pastry Melange in packs of five 2kg sheets. They will be added to BakeMark UK’s existing range of bakery fats.

BakeMark UK is a major supplier of bakery products and is a subsidiary of Dutch company CSM.