Focus on Honeybuns: A sweet touch of mother’s baking

Bakers Honeybuns firmly believes in its philosophy of quality over quantity.

The seductive smell of something baking in the Aga was always in the air when Emma Goss-Custard was growing up. “My mum was a very good Aga baker,” she says. ”There was always a cooked tea, and a pudding afterwards, and later we’d have supper with cakes and biscuits and things. And she always used good ingredients.” So, too, did Emma, when she launched her own business in a modest way, baking from her student digs in Oxford (in complete contravention of the rules, of course) and delivering her produce around the city. It was, however, a hand to mouth existence. “ There was a bike for sale in a local junk shop and I got it for £50, which took some finding,” she said. “It was ideal for making the deliveries, but unfortunately, I couldn’t afford the basket to go with it because that was another £20, and I just didn’t have it.” It took another two weeks to earn the extra, but there was never any doubt that Emma, with her devotion to quality, would eventually rake in the cash from grateful customers. And, as a reminder of those days, that bike is now part of the décor at Honeybuns, the Dorset bakery Emma runs with husband Matt, and where quality standards are as uncompromisingly high as they were back in her mother’s day. “ My mum is no longer with us, but her belief in baking things in a proper way certainly is,” said Emma. “Our rule is to make things as good as you would if you were going to give it to a relative or a friend – that means using the best ingredients and not cutting any corners on quality.”

Emma Goss-Custard proprietor of Honeybuns, who with her husband Matt, runs their business in Dorset. Emma says: “At least on of our customers has stopped buying, because he said the product was too good.”

Next time you take a break from the shopping to refresh yourself at the coffee shop in John Lewis or Peter Jones there’s a very good chance you will find one of Honeybuns’ products on your plate: the John Lewis Partnership has been one of the bakery’s best customers.

It was a search for the right quality ingredients that brought the business to the West Country, and to a former dairy farm near Sherborne, in the first place.

Some of the products of bakers Honeybuns

“ We were in Guildford and we were doing farmers’ markets and had a lot of loyal customers,” said Emma. “ But our big problem was getting the right quality ingredients. What local products there were, were expensive and there really weren’t that many at all. Because of our belief in using the best things we decided to move to where they were produced. And down here we really are spoiled for choice: there are so many more people producing.” Honeybuns has been operating out of a converted barn since January this year, with produce ranging from the finest Denhay butter to local honey, and jams arriving through one door and a never-ending procession of cakes, biscuits and shortbreads (there are 38 regular lines plus seasonals) departing through another.

And Matt and Emma are also discovering the pleasures of selling to a local market where good food really is appreciated.
“ We’ve taken our stuff to one or two events like the cheese festival and Dorchester Show and the response has been brilliant,” said Emma. “The takings were great, but we had such a good time ourselves.”
“ People would come up and talk to us, and say how much they liked what we were doing, and then they would come back and stock up.”
Yet she insists there is nothing magic about what they produce. The Honeybuns technique is simple: strip a standard cake or confection down to basics and rebuild it using only the best ingredients. No shortcuts. No additives. No all-purpose confectioners’ gunge. And, unusually, no working down to a budget.

“ Most businesses will be horrified, but we have never, ever costed a product first,” said Emma. “The whole operation is quality-led, so we will make something and then charge accordingly. People will either appreciate the fact that they are getting something special and pay up, or they won’t do either.” That may seem a radical approach to selling in a society where people won’t blink if the price of a car or fridge goes up by £100, but who will complain if they are asked to pay another tuppence for a loaf of bread. But, says Emma: “My view is that people can buy cheap food if they want and they can buy mediocre food if they want. But they should also have the option to buy better food too.”

Heidi Caswell and Liz Byrne preparing cakes at the bakery

It is a company philosophy, Emma admits, which has cost her and Matt a few contracts, but they have no problem with that and no intention of compromising.
“ At least one of our customers has stopped buying, because he said the product was too good,” she said.
“ The problem is that these days everyone wants you to make big, cheap and nasty. We could make things for a fraction of what we do if we wanted to: we could use margarine instead of butter, add water, use a few more tricks of the trade.
“ But we don’t make rubbish, we make nice stuff. Actually, turning down business has been bit of a strengthening exercise. Either you have the resolve to plough on with your own thing or you haven’t. We have, and there is a significant and growing minority of people who appreciate what we are doing.”

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