What Type of Cakes Sell Best in Small Cafés?

Running a small independent café is a juggling act. Great coffee, lovely staff, rising costs… and a cake counter that actually earns its keep.

What Type of Cakes Sell Best in Small Cafés?

We’ve worked with hundreds of independents over the years at Exploding Bakery, and one question comes up again and again:

What wholesale cakes actually sell?

Not the prettiest. Not the trendiest. The ones that shift, slice after slice, day after day. Here’s our straight-talk guide to building a cake counter that customers love and your margins will thank you for.

1. Keep It Familiar (With a Twist)

In small cafés, comfort always wins. Customers want cakes they recognise instantly and a 'home made' feel is a massive plus. Neat, frilly cake with perfect, sharp edges can give the impression that it sure is pretty but may lack of flavour.

Best cakes for independent coffee shops:

 

These are the best selling café cakes for a reason. They’re approachable, nostalgic, and easy to say yes to. The trick isn’t reinventing them and doing them properly. Rich chocolate made with melt in the mouth almond flour (making it also gluten free).  Real citrus, no essence or fake flavours. Vegan banana bread made with dark, single-origin Colombian chocolate.

2. Traybakes Are Your Margin Heroes

If you want to maximise profit per square inch of counter, traybakes are non-negotiable and we're here for it.

Why traybakes for cafés work so well:

  • Easy to portion consistently
  • Strong shelf life
  • Minimal waste
  • Great price-to-cost ratio

Brownies, blondies, flapjacks and slices all punch above their weight when it comes to margins. Customers love the grab-and-go format, and staff love how fast they are to serve.

3. Loaf Cakes = Quiet Overachievers

Loaf cakes are often underestimated, but in smaller cafés they’re incredibly reliable sellers.

Why?

  • They look generous without feeling intimidating
  • Slice cleanly (no crumbling disasters)
  • Feel and look homemade and comforting
  • They add a different shape and variety to your current display

Think 'St Clement's Loaf' or 'Chocolate Banana Bread', or seasonal fruit loaves. 

 

4. One Vegan Option Isn’t Optional Anymore

Vegan cake isn’t just for Veganuary. It's now a year-round expectation in independent cafés.

The mistake we still see? Treating vegan cake as an afterthought.

Our best-selling plant based cakes for cafes are:

  • Brownies
  • Banana Bread
  • Flapjacks

When vegan cakes are rich, sticky and indulgent, they don’t just sell to vegans. They sell to everyone. And when customers trust your vegan option, they come back.

5. Don’t Overcrowd the Counter

More choice doesn’t always mean more sales. In fact, smaller cafés often sell more by offering less.

A strong cake counter usually looks like:

  • 1 brownie or traybake classic
  • 1 loaf cake
  • 1 'hero' cake (carrot, chocolate, or seasonal special)
  • 1 vegan option

That’s it. Easy decisions for customers. Faster service. Less waste at the end of the day.

6. Cakes Should Match Your Coffee

The most successful cafés think about cake the same way they think about coffee. Quality matters. Consistency matters. And if something isn’t good enough to recommend, it probably shouldn’t be on the counter.

Customers might come in for coffee, but cake is often where the real profit sits.

 

The Bottom Line

The best cakes for small cafés are:

  • Familiar with 'home made feel' done brilliantly
  • Easy to portion and serve
  • High margin, low waste
  • Inclusive (vegan / gluten free)

You don’t need dozens of options. You need the right ones.

If you’re building (or refining) your cake counter and want cakes that  sell, we're here to help out.

If you have any questions, just ping us an email: cake@explodingbakery.com