The popularity of the cupcake and proliferation of cookery shows with easy to replicate recipe ideas like Baking Mad with Eric Lanlard have made homemade cakes, flowery aprons and a kitchen brimming with baking utensils the latest trend. You can find crème eggs in a cupcake or put photos of your dog on a birthday cake. These new and varied reasons to stock up your cookery cupboard beg the question, why is baking back in vogue?
1. The start of the 21st Century saw a new baking trend under the spotlight. The cupcake rose to fame as a vintage and retro icon of the cakes, much like high-waisted jeans did within fashion, and floral wallpaper did within interior design. Thanks to the fashionable influence of New York City, the cupcake trend went global.
2. The initial image of baking that comes to most people’s minds is a housewife cooking up a royally-iced cake; just in time for when the children get back from school. These days it’s trendy to bake anytime of the day or night. Courgette and Seed Muffins make a perfect accompaniment for some lunchtime soup, while students across the world have at one point indulged in a midnight microwave mug cake.
3. Baking is a unique and fun opportunity to celebrate events. The recent royal wedding gave rise to street parties lined with Union Jack cupcakes and scary looking iced versions of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Wedding fever hit the UK and homemade wedding cakes became bigger, bolder and trendier.
4. Of course, trends are always helped with a magic touch from the media. Our favourite residents of Wysteria Lane and the increasingly popular 50s dramas make baking housewives the new but retro female icons and trendsetters. Business suits are exchanged for aprons and briefcases for rolling pins as stay-at-home women aim to become the new Betty Draper.
5. Birthdays, Christmas, Easter and weddings would not be the same without a beautifully baked cake right in the middle of the table. As the trend to bake grows, so does the size and complexity of the cakes. Eric Lanlard has a queue of celebrities waiting to try his bespoke cakes and the Baking Mad show is proof of how many people enjoy baking as a pastime.
6. As the demand for new baking products and accessories grows, the shops are more than willing to supply. The fantastic invention of silicon cooking utensils means that baked goods can be made in cases that are more flexible and reusable. Perfect for a recycling conscious generation.
7. The new recycling generation also has an increased interest to ‘waste not, want not’. Rather than leave surplus fruit and vegetables to waste, fruit preserves and banana cake recipes are filling baking cookbooks across the nation. The desire to bake as much as possible from leftovers is fuelling a whole new range of innovative recipe books.
8. Like we say with a number of recent trends, the increase in baking could be put down to the recession. Many people are opting to bake their own bread rather than buy ready-made loaves, while others choose to make an extravagant looking home-made dessert, such as this Delice Noisette, to impress guests at a fraction of the cost.
9. Baking is also a fantastic way to save money when giving gifts. A homemade cake or batch of brownies is a far more personal way to say thank you to a friend or goodbye to a work colleague. More importantly, it is a lot cheaper than buying a bottle of champagne.
10. It is well known that sharing your baked goods and tipswith friends is a lovely and rewarding way to spend your time. A little secret, baking will also win you an abundance of new friends! Taking your latest cake experiments into the office may reduce your paperwork while a fresh loaf of bread can bring a smile to any frowning mother-in-law.