Hot cross buns axed, frog cakes revamped by Balfours’s new WA owners

Though a number of products are set to go from this year onward, the new owners of Balfours have said customers can expect their frog cakes to taste a little bit different this year.

Beloved South Australian homegrown baker Balfours will no longer sellhot cross buns and a number of other goods, but has hinted at a big change to its iconic frog cakes.

Balfours was one of the state’s best-known brands before Western Australian company Aus Pie Co took ownership last August.

Aus Pie Co chief executive Bruce Feodoroff told The Advertiser that hot cross buns and kids-sized frog cakes would be discontinued, after a number of retailers tried to order the products leading up to Easter.

However, on the upside, Mr Feodoroff said that buyers can expect a “gourmet revamp” of the company’s trademark frog cakes “within the next six months”.

While the original made with fondant cream will remain, a new range of frog cakes will be made from butter cream, which is traditionally smoother and less sickly, as well as chocolate.

8-year-old Holly Stanley about to tuck into an iconic Balfours green frog cake. Picture: Keryn Stevens

Mr Feodoroff told The Advertiser that before being acquired, Balfours was “losing a large amount of money annually” and couldn’t make a profit on the cancelled items.

“The previous owners were happy to sell for a loss, but we just can’t do that and we’ll have to re-evaluate the pricing model,” Mr Feodoroff said.

“It’s not that we don’t want to make it, we just don’t want to make it and lose money.

“We’re currently in a conversation with our customers about what pricing will look like for the year ahead and next year, and we may bring them back depending on what sort of price they’re selling for, and what their customers are willing to pay.”

Also set to go are croissants and bread products, which were previously purchased wholesale and resold.

Balfours hot cross buns will no longer be available from this year onward. Picture: Facebook

He confirmed that Balfours goods were still being made at their Dudley Park site in SA, and that the company’s Pie Face line of pastries would also be made locally from this year onward.

Aus Pie Co is best-known for the Mrs Macs Pies brand, and Mr Feodoroff said discussions were under way to make Balfours a national name as well.

“We brought the Balfours brand with the intention of taking it nationally, and we’re talking to supermarkets about selling it interstate, as well as a number of importers about potentially getting it overseas,” Mr Feodoroff said.

Balfours was founded in 1853, only 17 years after South Australia was officially colonised, making it one of the state’s oldest brands.

Frog cakes were first sold in 1922, and along with “pie floaters” have become synonymous with the state.

The company was bought out in 2008 by San Remo, also South Australian, and its sale in 2023 marked the first time ownership had left the state.