How We Stay Inspired: The Creative Process Behind Our Monthly Specials

If you’ve visited our Cotswold bakery, Sliced Cake Kitchen and Bakery before, you’ll know there’s usually something new waiting on the counter.

Every month, alongside all your Sliced favourites, we create two limited-edition specials: a croissant special and a cruffin special. It’s our chance to get creative, experiment with new flavour combinations and give you something different to try each month.

But how do we decide what makes it onto the counter? Here’s a little look behind the scenes at our Cotswold bakery and the creative process behind our monthly specials.

It Starts With the Season

A lot of our inspiration comes from the time of year at our Cotswold bakery.

We love creating bakes that match the season, whether that means fresh, fruity flavours during the warmer months or richer, more comforting combinations as autumn arrives.

Over the months, this has led to specials including our Eton Mess Cruffin, Apple & Blackberry Croissant, Tiramisu Croissant, Crème Brûlée Cruffin and Dot Cake Cruffin.

Then there are the flavours that just sound too good not to try.

Our specials give us the freedom to have fun with familiar desserts, classic flavour combinations and new ideas, turning them into something completely Sliced.

Experiment, Taste, Repeat

Towards the end of each month, our bakers start thinking about what’s coming next.

This is when the experimenting begins.

We’ll play around with different flavours, fillings and toppings, testing combinations to find out what works best in a croissant or cruffin. Sometimes an idea works brilliantly straight away. Other times, it needs a few tweaks before it’s ready for the counter.

There’s plenty of trial and error involved — but that’s all part of the creative process.

A filling might need a little more flavour, a topping might need a different texture or an idea might completely change once we start experimenting with it.

And, of course, there’s plenty of taste-testing along the way.

From Classic Desserts to Sliced Specials

Some of our favourite ideas come from taking a well-known dessert and asking: how can we turn this into a Sliced bake?

That’s how flavours such as Crème Brûlée, Eton Mess and Tiramisu have found their way into our pastry counter.

Other ideas are all about seasonal ingredients and flavours that naturally work together. Our Apple & Blackberry Croissant, for example, brought together two classic autumn flavours in pastry form.

It means inspiration can come from almost anywhere — a dessert we love, an ingredient that’s in season or simply a flavour combination we really want to try.

This Month at Sliced

For October, we wanted our specials to feel properly autumnal while still bringing something a little different to the counter.

Our Sticky Toffee Cruffin is filled with vanilla crème pâtissière, then topped with sticky toffee cake and toffee sauce. Sticky, sweet, comforting and exactly what we want from an autumn bake.

Alongside it is our Pistachio & Raspberry Pain au Chocolat, filled with raspberry jam and pistachio frangipane, then topped with more pistachio frangipane, freeze-dried raspberries and pistachio nuts.

Two very different flavours, but both very Sliced.

One Month, Two New Bakes

That’s what we love about our monthly specials. There’s always something new happening at our Cotswold bakery.

At the end of each month, we head back into the kitchen and start the process all over again: coming up with ideas, experimenting with flavours, testing different combinations and, eventually, choosing the next two specials.

Some ideas work. Some need a little more time. And some might never make it past the taste-testing stage.

But that trial and error is exactly what keeps us inspired.

So, next time you’re at Sliced, make sure you check out the monthly specials. They won’t be around forever and by the time you’re enjoying them, we’ll probably already be experimenting with what’s coming next. Keep up to date on our social media.