What is the Honeybuns Pop Up Shop?

On the first Saturday of each month, we fling open our doors and welcome customers from 09.30am – 12 noon. The look is rustic – as befits our old dairy farm setting here in very rural Dorset. We pile up all the treats onto cake stands and in baskets and ask you to help yourselves. We sell large and small traybakes singly as well as wrapped slices in packs of ten. No need for carrier bags as we have plenty of reusable cardboard boxes ready and waiting to transport your goodies home. Supporting our Pop Up Shop helps reduce any food waste. Non A1 cakes which have wonky icing or cracked chocolate toppings cannot be sent to our trade customers but are absolutely delicious in every other way. It’s a bit like the brilliant wonky veg campaign launched in supermarkets in recent years.

As well as being able to buy our ‘quakes’ (quirky cakes at crazy prices) customers can also taste any newbie cake lines and tell us, face to face, what they think.

Bobo, our Romanian rescue dog is on reception to welcome you and greet you in the ample car parking area. We also have some very friendly donkeys who will come over straightaway for their carrots. Either bring your own carrots and apples or we will have a stash here.

Reasons to visit the Honeybuns pop up cake shop

Stock up your freezer with gluten free goodies and help a local business to avoid food waste.
Come and try any new cakes being developed. We normally have vegan and gluten free samples to try.
Meet our gorgeous rescue donkeys and say ‘Hi’ to BoBo.
Ask Emma to show you around the nature reserve including the Freedom bee hive, nature walk and orchard. You can get a feel of how sustainable we are.
Make new friends. Pop Up Shop days have evolved into a lovely organic social space. There are outside chairs and a table you can use.

When will you be selling Christmas type cakes at the Pop Up Shop?

We have got a trio of new Christmas traybakes which will be available at the Pop Up Shop on Saturday, November 4^th.

Bliss Bar. This is our signature almond and polenta shortbread layered with an almond and date based caramel and topped with seven different nuts seeds plus dark chocolate. Heavenly! Did we mention it’s also gluten free and vegan too?
Mincemeat Crumble Slice. This is an oldie but goodie having been made by us for the past 8 years. Whilst writing this blog I had to try one out with my mid-morning cuppa. Solely for research purposes. It’s even better than I remembered, owing to some tweakments including more of the fruity filling and more orange zest for maximum flavour and indulgence. This is dairy free, vegan and gluten free to boot.
Fruited Ginger Cake. This is a light yet moist sponge and filled to bursting with nuts, seeds and fruits. A lovely alternative to a more traditional Christmas cake slice. Gluten free.

Catch these delights whilst you can as we have limited stock. Please note that these seasonal cakes are A1 stock and will be sold at our non discounted prices.

Why is customer feedback so important to your bakery?

Discerning feedback helps drive forward improvements to our cake range. Baking larger orders can be a somewhat isolated process. Namely, we get orders in from our trade customers which are then made and sent direct to their warehouses. They, in turn distribute these cakes to cafes and other outlets. We are therefore somewhat removed from the final consumer. By being able to chat, face to face, with Pop Up Shop customers we can get valuable direct and honest feedback on new cakes and established classics. For instance, over the summer of ’23 we produced 6 different iterations of a new vegan and gluten free raspberry Bakewell slice. It took a while to reach a consensus on the almond flavour. A bit like Goldilocks- we had to keep trialling samples in order to get this cake “just right”.

Added benefits of buying cakes

We’ve happily observed how customers have introduced themselves to each other, with some realising that they live super close by to each other. New friendships have been initiated and Sam and I have been lucky enough to be included in some fascinating conversations. Now more than ever I think we all crave and need human, real life connections.

We thought we were just setting out our stall to sell quirky cakes but it has developed into something really rather special.

Future plans

One unexpected problem we have recently run into is lack of stock for the Pop Up Shop. We have been improving a lot on reducing wastage in the bakery – so we have less reject stock to sell. This is clearly great news for the bakery but leaves us with a bit of a puzzle to solve regarding our Pop Up Shop – we have a limited number of bargain cakes to sell.

Soooo….we’re thinking about ways to improve and remodel our once a month Honeybuns experiences. Perfect cakes at non discount prices could be sold alongside the offer of free hot/cold drinks on a serve yourself basis?

We have a little tea cabin made from a converted shipping container which customers could use….?

We recognise the value of getting people together and this might just be a goer.

We’ve more to mull over, but please do let us know your thoughts….

Pop Up Shop dates for the remainder of 2023

Come and see Sam, Bobo, the donks and I:

Sat October 7^thSat November 4^thSat December 2^nd

Our Pop Up shop then has a break over the winter, reopening on the first Saturday in March 2024

Call us to pre order cakes on 01963 23597

Reviews & suggestions

Please don’t forget to leave us a review on google. It really helps us a lot.

Huge thanks to you all for your support and friendship and hope to see you on the farm.

Em x

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You might also be interested in reading what is it like running a gluten free bakery in the UK.