Taking it cheesy: can panettone’s new flavours see off the Christmas cake? | Food & drink industry

With its light, buttery taste and Italian allure, panettone has become a challenger to the traditional slab of Christmas fruitcake, but this year it is almost unrecognisable, as exotic versions of the festive bread, including tiramisu, black cherry and even parmesan cheese, line up on supermarket shelves.

Panettone was a big hit in 2021 and this year Waitrose has gone to town, with more than 12 variations, including a “supermarket first” – a savoury “Parmigiano Reggiano and cracked black pepper” panettone. This twist is a bridge too far for some food critics and when a baker tried it for the Guardian, they concluded it was “so not a panettone” but a rather tasty “cheese bread”.

Waitrose, which is also selling a £5.50 do-it-yourself panettone kit this year, said it sold more of the Italian domes than fruitcakes in its supermarkets last Christmas. “Last year we sold 60% more panettones than Christmas cakes,” said Sarah Davies, the supermarket’s bakery buyer. While its customers liked the traditional recipe, they also liked to discover exciting new flavours, she said.

Although panettone has now secured a place at the table, it has some way to go to break fruitcake’s overall stranglehold on the Christmas cake market. More than 1.1 million people bought a panettone in December last year, but 7 million people bought a traditional Christmas cake. Indeed, Britons spent £41.4m on their annual fruitcake and fondant icing fix and about £7m on panettone, according to the supermarket analysts Kantar.

Neil Nugent, who runs the food consultancy BullDogFish and has worked in product development for big retailers including Iceland and Morrisons, said there was usually room for both cakes in most households. “Panettone is just a nice, easy eat from breakfast through to afternoon tea.”

If you have bought a good one he suggests the “less you do with it the better”. “There is usually a lot of effort that has gone into making it so if you are smothering it in custard you can lose the essence of what a panettone is about.”

Panettone starts at under £4 in leading supermarkets but the sky is the limit when it comes to how much you can spend as it has become a popular gift, spawning “designer” versions such as the collaboration between the panettone maker Fiasconaro and the fashion label Dolce & Gabbana, which comes in a colourful hat tin and costs from £46.