For years, the retail bakery industry thought of home bakers as competition. The pandemic helped influence a sea change of opinion. Now savvy bakeries like Manresa Bread recognize a new opportunity.

Manresa Bread founder Avery Ruzicka has started rolling out a series of home baking kits, and the latest (Bake with Avery Cinnamon Rolls) contains scalded flour mix, one packet of dry ingredients, filling mix, icing mix, wooden rolling pin, and 9-inch cake pan. And there’s an online link to the private class.

The instructions included are clear and concise: For example: “Scalding the flour. Turn on stove to medium and add Scalded Flour Mix packet to a saucepan. Add 180 g of milk. Cook until pastry dough forms and has a thick consistency with no liquid left.”

Instructions for Bake with Avery Cinnamon Rolls continue with Mixing the Dough & First Proof, Making the Filling, Rolling Out the Dough, and Baking and Icing. The steps are easy to follow.

According to Packaged Facts’ report Home Baking: US Trends and Opportunities, the coronavirus pandemic had a significant effect on home baking activity. Many consumers began baking at home more as they spent more time at home for work or school and were looking to find new hobbies. Baking provided some consumers with personal enjoyment or a more productive way to spend their time when they were stuck at home. Thus, the latest year saw fast increases in sales of home baking products.

The market research firm published its National Online Consumer Survey that revealed that most consumers regularly baked in 2022. The report estimated that 31% of people baked at least once a week and 24% of people baked one or twice a month in 2022. Packaged Facts said it expects the home baking products market will reach $78.3 billion in 2027.

When I first started at this magazine 23 year ago, experienced bakers would talk of home bakers as a business threat. But its clear now that an opportunity exists to educate home bakers how to bake by sharing your wisdom through educational classes and innovative products like the Bake with Avery series from Manresa Bread. I now consider this idea a win-win for our industry.