Honeybuns was started in the late 1990's in Oxford by Emma Goss-Custard and back then all the cakes were made using her gran's and her mum's domestic Kenwood mixers.  Her gran's vintage model, which is a luscious duck egg blue, is still used in the development kitchen.  In the bakery itself, big old Hunt mixers are used, built like tractors and tough enough to cope with the increasing workload.

Honeybuns has grown a bit since 1998, has moved to Dorset and there is now a team of over 20 members.  The growth has been organic and has avoided the venture capital, more high octane business path.

Their focus is on making yummyliciously good things from as many good, local ingredients as possible.  They are careful about food miles but have to make compromises on things like pecan nuts.  Wherever possible the non UK grown ingredients are sourced from Europe rather than further afield.  The fact that the cakes are gluten free and sometimes dairy free too is an added point of interest.  Their number one priority is flavour and texture or "mouthfeel" which a lot of time is spent on, when developing new products.  It just so happens that Honeybuns prefers using ground toasted nuts, seeds, polenta & quinoa to regular wheat flour.
They bake in an old school way.  Batches are small, no larger than 35 tins at a time.  Cakes are made from scratch using natural ingredients. Ingredients are bought from people with a similar approach to our own: flavour-pride-quality-fun! The free range eggs come from 2 miles away and the butter is the creamy old fashioned kind from Denhay Farm (12 miles).  Food miles are not the only consideration taken into account when choosing suppliers as quality, organic status, reliability and price are also important.

Honeybuns bakes a range of premium cakes and slices which are available as pre wrapped portions or tray bakes.

The recipes are naturally free of gluten because they use polenta and ground nuts rather than wheat flour.  When coeliac customers started to ask whether certified gluten free ingredients could be used Honeybuns began to develop truly safe recipes for them to enjoy with the rest of the family.  The main issue for to be addressed from a production point of view was the elimination of cross contamination.  Honeybuns does not have any wheat flour on the premisies which is a great start.   Incoming ingredients are tested for contamination and the finished products are routinely sent to an UKAS accredited lab for testing.

Honeybuns cakes are available at a wide range of retail outlets all over the country, including many fine independent delicatessens and cafes as well as John Lewis Cafes, Eurostar trains, most  stores, The Little Theatre Cinema in Bath and the local post office. Also, they export to Ireland, France and Hong Kong and hope to export to Japan soon. Please phone the bakery (01963 23597) and to find our your nearest stockist.

Bee Shack is a little cafe at the bakery which serves Fair Trade tea, coffee and hot chocolate, and offers cake samples for you to try. You can also buy Honeybuns cakes to eat in or take away and lunches are available (booking is essential).