With two major Hispanic holidays – Día de los Muertos on Nov. 1-2 and the festival of the Epiphany (Rosca de Reyes) on Jan. 6 – arriving, now is a great time for a primer on Hispanic traditions and how to treat everyone with festive and fresh bakery creations.

Jennifer LaPaugh, senior director of marketing for the Artisanal Channel for Dawn Foods, shares valuable tips on how Dawn Foods can assist bakeries to create compelling messaging targeted toward Hispanic consumers.

“At Dawn, we offer high-quality product solutions, inspirational recipes and marketing materials that are relevant for Hispanic consumers. Each quarter we release a Seasonal Catalog that includes recipes and featured products for the season,” she explains.

"This year Dawn published a Hispanic Heritage Recipe Book that includes more than fifty different recipes to make popular Hispanic treats for the holidays, such as Day of the Dead Cupcakes, Pan de Muerto, and Rosca de Reyes (Three Kings Cake)."

Dawn has created a series of 20-plus posters that feature everyday Hispanic bakery items like conchas, magdalena cookies, and tres leches cake that are given to bakers to market featured items and drive impulse purchases in the bakery.

Dawn understands that this year has been difficult for bakers, LaPaugh says. “We are committed to supplying and supporting bakeries as they re-think and re-tool their operations. We know that at this critical time, some bakeries are operating with a reduced team and shifting consumer demands for more grab and go items. Many have begun to simplify their menus to ease the back of house production.”

To help with that, Dawn has created a series of versatility guides, which are designed to give bakers ideas and recipes to make multiple final products from one single bag of mix. There are seven versatility guides available, with three focused on Hispanic bakery items including bizcocho, crème cake and sponge cake.

“At Dawn, we’ve spent the last 100 years putting our customers at the center of everything we do,” LaPaugh explains. “As part of this, our team constantly researches and discovers insights into the consumer trend landscape to help our customers make more informed business decisions and better meet demands in the marketplace. Last year we revealed 2020 trends to provide a view on what’s happening in the marketplace, consumer behaviors and macro influencers. These trends help us to consult bakers on opportunities to better meet consumer needs. However, with the global pandemic, we know that consumer views and needs have shifted, so we have new information on how those trends are manifesting in this new normal.”

Dawn understands that celebrations, especially during important holidays, continue to be extremely important, they just look a little different this year.

The Blissful Indulgence trend Dawn Foods identified is still relevant as people are facing higher levels of stress  and are seeking opportunities to disconnect and destress. Consumers want a momentary escape from reality and are turning to food for comfort.

A quote that’s relevant for this time is “Stressed is Desserts spelled backwards.”

For its artisanal bakers, Dawn brings them trends and insights and demonstrates bakery recipes and decorating ideas at local Baker’s Gatherings Food Shows that Dawn hosts.

“In past years, we’ve held 25+ of these events each year where we invite bakers to meet with the Dawn Foods team to view product inspirations, taste samples, and provide them with insights on consumer trends,” she shares. “With the global pandemic, we’ve had to postpone these in-person shows.

“However, with the global pandemic, we re-imagined our in-person shows for a virtual audience. We know how important it is to share new ideas and have that connection with our bakers, so we held virtual Food Shows in 2020 and 2021. We look forward to our 2022 Food Show to help bakers succeed during the holiday season and give them the opportunity to learn about Dawn products, view pre-recorded demonstrations from Dawn technical bakery experts, receive discounts on select products, and see holiday cake and donut decorating ideas."

To learn more about Dawn's Food Shows, visit www.dawnfoods.com/virtual-food-show to see some of what was shared with bakers at this past year's event.