The Benjamin Blümchen cake is cut at many children's birthday parties.

The well-known cream and chocolate strawberry cake, which was first sold in 1996, brings back childhood memories for young people and adults alike.

"One never expected that this cake would one day achieve this cult status," says Peter Schmidt, Managing Director of the Conditorei Coppenrath & Wiese KG, which was founded in 1975 and has its headquarters in Mettingen.

Probably the best-known frozen confectionery in Germany, which now employs 3,100 people, was founded by two cousins, the confectioner Josef Wiese and the businessman Aloys Coppenrath.

The subsidiary Overnight Tiefkuehl-Service GmbH, based in Osnabrück, was founded in 1994 and claims to be one of the leading providers of deep-frozen transport in Germany.

Coppenrath und Wiese has been part of the Oetker Group since 2015, but says it is still family-oriented.

In general, customers are between 30 and 75 years old.

The Coppenrath & Wiese range extends from large cream cakes to smaller products such as sheet cakes and rolls that can be baked;

it consists of around 100 individual articles.

In addition to traditional cakes such as chocolate cake and the Black Forest cake, which has been part of the range since 1977, modern cakes such as the New York Cheesecake are also available.

The products are divided into different categories, for example according to ingredients, occasion or whether the products are vegan or lactose-free.

This should ensure "that everyone finds the right thing for their wallet and taste preferences," says Dorothee Reiering-Böggemann, Head of Marketing at Coppenrath & Wiese.

In autumn of this year, for example, a new line of vegan products is to be launched.

There will be a rehearsal on Friday morning at eight

Before it is ready for the market, there is a tough selection process.

According to the company, you orientate yourself on trends and the "customer journey", the path a customer takes before he buys the product.

Lighter and fruitier recipes, for example with creams based on quark or yoghurt, are currently very popular.

Such trends are picked up, for example with the peach-sour cream sheet cake launched in March or the mango-passion fruit cake.

Bakers and confectioners try out the new products and variants and then have the test products tasted.

After all, the entire management tries out the potential new products every Friday at eight in the morning.

"When I came to Coppenrath & Wiese in 2015, I immediately had to eat five or six pieces of different cream cakes," remembers Schmidt, "but that's probably because I love the product."

Test subjects can also be recruited by market research institutes.

People are approached on the street, or they have already registered beforehand.

If a product can assert itself, it goes into production.

Technical systems are tried out there and, if necessary, new technology and new machines are used.

Product development can therefore sometimes take two to three years.

For smaller products or a new variety, however, the process only takes about a year.

As Reiering-Böggemann reports, people still trust in manual work, for example when cakes are decorated with lines.

"The machines aren't ready to do delicate work yet," she says.