The Difference Between Frozen and Fresh Wholesale Pastries for Cafes

Running a café, deli, or farm shop means making smart choices about what to serve your customers – not only for taste and quality, but also for profitability and stock management. Pies & rolls remain the most popular wholesale bakery products for cafés: they’re hearty, comforting, and loved across all age groups.

But when it comes to sourcing wholesale pastries, you’ll often face a choice: fresh or frozen. Each option brings unique benefits for both your customers’ experience and your café’s bottom line. Let’s explore the differences so you can choose the right fit for your business.

Fresh Wholesale Pies & Rolls: The Premium Customer Experience

Fresh pies are baked and delivered without freezing, giving customers that authentic, bakery-fresh taste.

Why cafés choose fresh wholesale pies:

• Unbeatable flavour and texture – A golden crust that flakes perfectly and a rich filling that tastes homemade. Customers instantly notice freshness.
• Enhances your brand – Serving fresh pies positions your café or deli as “artisan” and quality-focused. For many businesses, that extra perception of freshness allows you to charge a little more per portion.
• Immediate service – Fresh pies arrive ready to display, which is perfect for busy lunch hours. 

Customer experience tip: When customers can smell fresh pies just placed on the counter, it encourages impulse buys. This sensory experience is harder to achieve with frozen stock.

Profitability and stock considerations:

• Fresh pies need to be sold quickly, which works well if you have steady footfall.
• They can carry a slightly higher unit cost, but many cafés offset this by pricing them at a premium.
• Stock control requires accurate sales forecasting to avoid waste – ideal for cafés with consistent daily traffic.

Frozen Wholesale Pies & Rolls: Consistency and Control

Frozen pies have improved massively in recent years. With modern freezing methods, quality and taste are preserved so well that many customers can’t tell the difference.

Why cafés choose frozen wholesale pies:

• Stock flexibility – You only defrost or bake what you need, when you need it. This reduces waste and ensures you never run out of customer favourites.
• Longer shelf life – Frozen wholesale pies can be stored for weeks or even months, giving you better control over supply.
• Menu consistency – Every pie tastes the same, helping cafés deliver a reliable customer experience.
• Seasonal and bulk purchasing – Frozen stock allows you to order seasonal specials or take advantage of bulk pricing without worrying about spoilage.

Customer experience tip: Frozen pies baked on-site still give customers the experience of a warm, freshly prepared product – and you gain the flexibility of baking small batches throughout the day.

Profitability and stock considerations:

• Better portion control and reduced waste means higher profit margins.
• Buying in bulk is easier with frozen stock, often leading to lower cost-per-pie.
• Frozen pies can help smaller cafés compete with larger chains by ensuring they always have popular items in stock.

Balancing Fresh and Frozen: The Best of Both Worlds

For many cafés and delis, the ideal solution is to use a combination of fresh and frozen pies:

• Serve fresh pies daily to create buzz and give customers that “artisan” experience.
• Keep frozen wholesale pies in reserve to cover unexpected demand or quieter days when fresh stock might not sell through.

This approach means you maintain high-quality customer experiences while still protecting profitability and ensuring smooth stock control.

Final Thoughts

When choosing between frozen and fresh wholesale pies, it’s not about one being “better” than the other – it’s about what works for your café. Fresh pies deliver unbeatable flavour and customer appeal, while frozen pies provide flexibility, stock control, and higher profit margins.

At The Original Baker, we supply both fresh and frozen wholesale pies, giving cafés, delis, and farm shops the choice that works best for their menu, customers, and budget.

For more guidance on selecting the right bakery products for your business, check out our previous blog: Finding the Right Wholesale Sausage Rolls and Pies for Your Business (Wholesale Sausage Rolls & Pies: A Guide for Cafés, Delis & Farm Shops).