Why is home baking the new popular trend?

Chocolate fudge cake, lemon drizzle cake and strawberry and white chocolate cake, enough to make your mouth water. So much so that everyone from Eva Longoria to your granny is at it – baking that is.

Lets get cracking!/Image courtesy of pixabay.com*

It all started when people lived in huts and cooked on fires, home baking and cooking has been a way of life, yet it seems more recently its becoming popular as a hobby as well.

Once thought of as mumsy and fuddy duddy, baking is as hot as an oven.

Home baking is usually associated with older generations and messy cupcake making with the kids, however the hobby has had a new take over from the young, arguably hipster folk that love going to country markets to pick up fresh ginger and a skinned hare to make some sort of elaborate dish for their midweek tea.

Forget stodgy meals cooked in grim kitchens - cooking is cool!

According to the Mintel survey results, which is referred to in Hannah Briggs’ online article named ‘Why do we love to bake?’ for BBC Food, ‘79% of adults say they enjoy baking at home, and 22% of home bakers claim to be baking more now compared to a year ago’.

Baking can thank its surge in popularity from TV shows like everyone’s favourite, Bake Off and Saturdays Kitchen.

Jake Brewster, aged 23, a motorbike painter and air brusher exclaims how he enjoys the hobby, as its ‘creative and the only limit is your imagination’.

There are now hundreds of different cook books, cooking websites and food inspired social media pages on offer, from the more traditional ones to the vegan and calorie controlled varieties.

Jodie Stone, aged 42, the head chef at the café I Should Cocoa in Belper, Derbyshire, which specialises in chocolate and coffee, said, ‘I tend to look at recipe books online to get an idea of flavours more than anything’.

‘Since I’ve started working at the café, I enjoy people’s comments on how much they’ve enjoyed the variety of cakes I’ve prepared, and it makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something. I like to search the web to find the best new flavour combinations and recipes.

‘I’ve made cakes in past that have dark chocolate and ginger in, lemon and poppy seed and blueberry and lavender. I like to keep up with new crazes and developing strange flavours that people might not have tried before’.

Just one of the fabulous flavoured cakes that Jodie has made/Image courtesy of Emma Hall via I Should Cocoa*

One craze that’s taken the world by storm are ‘Freakshakes’, which originated from a café in Canberra, Australia and contains milkshake in a jar topped with a range of cakes and sweets that usually follows a theme such as Cherry Bakewell or Eton Mess.

I Should Cocoa owner Andy Booth, aged 48, says, ‘I think ‘Freakshakes’ are different, people haven’t seen them before. They’re over the top and crazy and that’s what people love’.

Asked if he thinks the craze will continue, he said, ‘It’s a bit of a fad, but they’re seasonal so it’s difficult to say. We’ve had a big run of them over the summer and we’ll see how the winter ones go. I think its just a case of creating new flavours and themes so they stay relevant’.

Many people young and old seek inspiration from online sources, such as social media and established sites like BBC Food. In 2001, the BBC launched The Good Food Show, a public event dedicated to food.

Full of stalls selling all sorts of kitchen equipment and edibles, live cookery tutorials, and with special guests like Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry, its surely a foodie’s heaven on earth.

Baking has come a long way through the decades, mostly as a necessity, now its took on a new light as something to do for fun.

Have a look at our tutorial of how to make 'Freakshakes', also click here to go to our written recipe in our 'Extreme Cookbook'.

Music for the video courtesy of audiojungle.net*

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