Why Free‑From Baking Costs More (And Why That’s Okay)

Why Free‑From Baking Costs More (And Why That’s Okay)

In every baking community—whether you’re running a full commercial kitchen or a tiny twice‑a‑month cake shed—there’s one topic that always stirs the batter: free‑from options.

Gluten‑free, dairy‑free, vegan, nut‑free… the list grows every year. And while the demand is real and the intentions are good, the economics behind free‑from baking are rarely understood by the people asking for it.

So let’s talk about it. Baker to baker. And maybe, just maybe, for the customers who wander into our sheds and wonder why a free‑from cupcake costs more than a supermarket multipack.

1. We Are Not Tesco. Or Sainsbury’s. Or Any Other Giant With a Warehouse of Ingredients.

Supermarkets can offer free‑from products cheaply because they buy ingredients by the pallet, have industrial equipment, and operate seven days a week. They don’t have to worry about half‑used cartons of oat milk quietly expiring in the fridge.

Small bakers? We do.

If I open a litre of oat milk to make a vegan cake for my cake shed, only use half a carton, and I only open twice a month, guess what happens to the rest of that oat milk? Spoiler: it’s not going into my morning coffee. That’s wastage I have to absorb.

Multiply that across specialist flours, stabilisers, dairy alternatives, and niche ingredients that cost more per gram than their standard equivalents, and suddenly that “just one free‑from cupcake” becomes a premium product before it even hits the oven.

2. Free‑From Baking Isn’t Straightforward — It’s R&D in an Apron

Here’s the part most people never see:

“Muggle” recipes — the full‑fat, full‑flour, full‑everything classics — just… work. They’ve been tested for decades. They behave. They rise. They brown. They taste exactly how you expect them to.

Free‑from recipes? They are science experiments.

You can’t just swap flour for a blend and hope for the best. You have to test:

• Which flour mix gives the right crumb

• Which dairy alternative curdles, splits, or tastes like sadness

• Which stabiliser works with which fat

• How long it keeps

• How it behaves in different weather

And then the manufacturers (yes you Flora) change their recipe and suddenly your go-to dairy-free frosting that was the only option for floral cupcakes no longer works. Not even for basic swirls. And the only alternative you can find that vaguely works is twice the price and is made from nuts. You get the idea.

Every free‑from product you see on a small baker’s menu represents hours of trial, error, wasted ingredients, and tweaking. That’s time and money we invest long before a single cupcake is sold.

3. Separation Takes Time—And Time Is a Cost

Free‑from baking isn’t just swapping ingredients. It’s:

• Cleaning down surfaces

• Switching equipment - and buying and storing additional equipment just for free-from bakes.

• Storing ingredients separately

• Avoiding cross‑contamination

• Labelling everything correctly

• Double‑checking every step

  
  

It’s a whole extra workflow.

And in a small kitchen—especially one that transforms into a shed bakery twice a month—that separation is a logistical puzzle. It’s not impossible, but it is time‑consuming. And time is one of the most expensive ingredients we use.

4. The Labelling Alone Could Be a Full‑Time Job

Allergens aren’t optional. They’re law.

Every free‑from product needs clear, accurate, compliant labelling. That means:

• Ingredient lists

• Allergen statements

• Cross‑contamination disclaimers

• Batch notes

• Storage instructions

It’s admin. It’s paperwork. It’s responsibility. And it’s invisible to most customers.

Yes, all products come with allergen labels but add in the fear, emotion and consequences of getting it wrong...

5. And Then There’s the “Muggle Factor”

Let’s be honest: most customers who don’t need free‑from options won’t buy them.

They assume free‑from means flavour‑less, joy‑less, or somehow “less than” the full‑fat, full‑flour version. So if I bake a batch of gluten‑free cupcakes for one person, I can’t rely on the rest selling out. They often don’t.

Which means more wastage. More cost. More risk to the sustainability of my business.

6. So Why Do We Charge More? Because the Alternative Is Not Doing It At All

For small bakers, free‑from isn’t a cheap add‑on. It’s a specialist service.

We either:

• Charge appropriately for the ingredients, time, separation, experimentation, and admin

  or

• Don’t offer it

There isn’t a magical third option where we absorb the cost and pretend it doesn’t exist.

And that’s not unkind. It’s sustainable. It’s honest. It’s grown‑up business.

7. The Takeaway (For Bakers and Customers Alike)

Free‑from baking is a skill. A commitment. A responsibility. And yes—a cost.

If you’re a baker wrestling with whether to offer it, know this: you’re allowed to charge what it actually costs. You’re allowed to say no. You’re allowed to protect your time, your margins, and your sanity.

And if you’re a customer reading this, here’s the gentle nudge:

"When you buy free‑from from a small business, you’re not just buying a cupcake. You’re buying the extra hours, the extra ingredients, the extra care, and the extra responsibility that goes into making something safe and delicious for you."

That’s worth paying for.