The Roald Dahl Story Company looks set to launch a Bruce Bogtrotter-style chocolate cake.
The Netflix-owned business has applied to register “Bruce” and “Bruce Bogtrotter” with the Intellectual Property Office under classes 29 and 30, covering dairy desserts and chocolate cakes.
While the RDSC had not responded to requests by the time of writing, the trademark activity indicates it might be developing a dessert inspired by the chocolate cake eaten by Bruce Bogtrotter in Dahl’s 1988 children’s novel, Matilda.
In the book, Matilda’s 11-year-old classmate Bruce Bogtrotter is forced by his infamously cruel school headmistress Miss Trunchbull to eat an “enormous round chocolate cake… fully 18 inches in diameter” and “covered with dark-brown chocolate icing”.
The activity comes after Leeds-based dessert brand Get Baked launched a 24-layer chocolate ganache cake, also called Bruce. The treat, which is sold by the slice, quickly became a viral success and Get Baked owner Rich Myers maintained it had “nothing to do with Matilda”.
View this post on Instagram
As such, Bruce was rebooted with an updated ganache recipe last year – and renamed Bertha. It now contains “a very specific combination of both milk and dark chocolate, so she has the depth and maturity of Bruce, but she’s sweeter, and more palatable”, according to Get Baked.
In May, Clitheroe-based Studio Bakery launched its Matilda cake slice, also featuring 24 layers of chocolate sponge and ganache, into Tesco.
At the time of Matilda’s Tesco launch, Myers posted to Instagram: “As you can imagine, I have received a very large number of messages from people sending me photos and links to this new ‘dupe Get Baked cake’ that’s available in Tesco.
“I’m not totally sure, but I think this could be a declaration of war – will see how it plays out,” he wrote.
View this post on Instagram
In August, Myers accused Studio Bakery of producing an “identical copy” of Get Baked’s marketing campaign for Orange Bertha for its Orange Matilda cake, which is now also listed in Tesco.
The launch of both products was teased by each of their respective bakery brands posting a close-up shot of an orange with a date super-imposed over it to Instagram.
“This is the same company that supply a knock-off version of our product to Tesco, despite pretending they’ve never heard of us,” Myers posted to Instagram.
When approached by The Grocer, Myers said he had been contacted by “multiple supermarkets” who wanted to launch his Bertha cake in their stores.
@khoslaa Let’s see if it tastes the same as the Bertha/Bruce get baked slice 🤔🤔 #matildacake#brucecake#getbaked#berthacake#matildacakelondon♬ Old Disney Swing Jazz - Nico
However, he had decided not to pursue business with them, because he wanted Bertha to be “something you get from us, and you only get from us, no matter how big we get”.
Myers told The Grocer he was “highly intrigued by” the RDSC’s trademark activity but saw it “as more of an opportunity than a threat”, claiming that the PR drummed up by his rivalry with Studio Bakery meant Get Baked was bringing in “more money than we ever have”.
Studio Bakery had not responded to requests by the time of publication
No comments yet