It's good to know we all think of cake when times are hard!
The other day I was crawling down the Finchley Road as usual and
I noticed with some excitement a sticker on the large dirty white
lorry in front of me. It said (I initially thought) Hendon Bake
Club. How nice I thought, a lorry driver that cooks.
Closer inspection however revealed that the sticker actually
said Hendon Bike Club (the "i" was in the shape of a motor bike
which is what confused me). As my thoughts had wandered off into
the realms of lorry drivers baking scones, chocolate chip cookies
and lemon tarts I was a bit disappointed (I realise I am making a
very stereotypical judgement about the minimal baking abilities of
lorry drivers here and if there are any out there reading this blog
whilst thumbing through How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella or
Baking Magic by Kate Shirazi then I apologise right now).
I expect it was the cold weather and grim outlook that turned my
mind to cakes. Apparently this is an established trend and IPC are
making a mint out of exploiting it with their website
Goodtoknow.co.uk. Goodtoknow.co.uk prides itself on a precise
SEO strategy and execution. It used to be that the most popular
recipe search was for chicken recipes (healthy low priced
protein).
Not anymore. Since the recession first began to squeeze the mums
of Britain there has been a surge in cake and cupcake recipe
searches. This intelligence translated itself into a counter
intuitive front cover for the launch of the print magazine last
winter. January issues are usually savoury and healthy. Goodtoknow
launched with blueberry pancakes. And this month's Christmas issue
features a star of their recipes Facebook group who makes an
excellent Christmas cupcake. It's a lovely example of online
interaction driving the editorial and creating a niche but
profitable dialogue with a highly engaged audience.Those Christmas
Cupcake recipes in full are here.
Anyone want to set up a mediaweek.co.uk Bake Club ?
This blog post was first published on Sue Unerman's blog.