Even the increased prices of essential raw materials and energy, which forced confectioners to increase the cost of Christmas sweets by hundreds of crowns, did not reduce the interest in small treats for the Christmas table.
“In our country, interest in sweets has been growing yearly. Even this year, when we have increased the price of sweets by roughly 20 percent,” Lukáš Staš, co-owner of the Frýdek-Místek handmade cake factory and café Elizebet Art of Goodies, said, adding that this year they sold a kilo of Christmas candy for CZK 1,390.
In total, they baked eight kinds of sweets. Besides the traditional ones, such as rolls or linzer, the Elizebet confectioners also prepared flavor-infused meringues. For example, lavender, mint, or gingerbread.
“What surprised us is the increased demand for micro cakes. These are three-centimeter miniatures of real cakes. It’s such a new trend, we have been making them, and we are making a huge number of them compared to previous years,” Staš revealed, adding that they do not sell micro cakes by the kilo but by the piece. Customers pay CZK 699 for 50 pieces of 13 types.
Orders end at the beginning of November
Customers who wanted to bake Christmas cookies had to be turned away at social enterprise 1. Jinačí, has establishments in Krnov, Ostrava, and Osoblaga.
“At the beginning of November, we had to stop taking orders. Even so, we still heard from people who were used to us baking for them in the past. However, they were no longer available,” said Lenka Herentinová, the company’s founder, adding that people wanted the sweets even though they had increased the price by about a hundred crowns compared to last year.
A kilo of classic candy costs CZK 670, and a kilo of gluten-free candy costs CZK 750.
“We also did vegan and raw, but in pieces, a kilo came out to about 700 crowns,” Herentinová estimated, adding that they had baked a total of 220 kilograms of candy before Christmas 20 kilograms were alternative, vegan, and raw. “But we didn’t do anything new. For three years, we have been making the same tried-and-true recipes that we have from our grandmothers and that we like. There was stuffing and drying, all buttery.”
If they had baked more, they would have sold it
Gabriela Dobiášová, a pastry chef and owner of Štramberk Cakes from Štramberk in the Novojičín region, also made the sweets more expensive.
“By 200 crowns, so a kilo was 850 crowns. And the demand was the same as in previous years,” she admitted, adding that they prepared approximately 130 kilograms of candy for the holidays as in previous years.
“We are a small bakery, and we cannot afford more. If we could, we would bake and sell more. There were enough people interested, we had to refuse,” explained Dobiášová, who also baked 12 types of candy this year.
“Classic, half cream and half dry. The last day to pick up was yesterday,” concluded the confectioner.