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.”
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..
“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.”
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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