Baking bonanza

September 10th, 2013 by Liliane Baines

Baking appeals to a simple human instinct – to make things and then share them

One of the most cheering trends of recent years has been the renaissance in home baking. Retailers such as Lakeland report that baking kit – piping bags, muffin cases, non-stick mini-morsel trays – is flying off the shelves as never before. The Great British Bake Off, that good-humoured (but deadly serious) contest which returned to television last month, attracts audiences of nearly six million.

To what can we attribute the new enthusiasm for home-made tarts, biscuits, brioches and batters? The economic downturn may have nudged consumers into finding satisfaction and reassurance in cheap, homely pleasures. But there’s more to it, surely. Baking is fun. It links the generations benignly – think of the way a family may treasure grandma’s “never-fails” formula for lemon drizzle cake or shortcrust pastry. In the first of his monthly columns for our Weekend section, Paul Hollywood, the co-judge on Bake Off, writes of the joy he finds in teaching his 11-year-old son Josh to make pizzas and chocolate roulade.

See the full article, courtesy of the Daily Telegraph here.