Do people realise how expensive baking is?

[nikkylou]

I went shopping today, I'm making cakes for work tomorrow for my last day
It got me thinking, as it always does every time I bake on request. That people who don't bake don't realise how expensive it is.
Once I make the terrible mistake of baking for my workplace, I open the floodgates...
Every charity cake sale, half of the birthdays...I bake. Don't get me wrong I don't bake for every request and I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it.
But even a victoria sponge can set you back £5-6 quid for real butter, cream, eggs and nice jam.

Is there any fellow bakers that regret revealing their talent and are paying the price (literally).

Is there any bakers that have negotiated this hurdle?

Or is it just me that spends £10 on various ingredients and then forks out another £1 on the day for a slice of their own cake...

I bake daily for my shop, buying in bulk means I can produce fairly cheaply and make a decent profit but it's the time it takes! Obviously homebakers aren't going to buy in bulk but I use baking butter from the supermarket which is v cheap compared to real butter and no one has ever noticed any difference...

I use spreadable butter for baking - really light results & not quite as pricey as actual butter.

I bake once a fortnight or so for work and most weeks something for home.
It is expensive but I use good quality ingredients because the thing I like about baking my own cakes is that I know what’s gone in to them!
I once bit into a Victoria sponge someone had made at work to discover the ‘buttercream’ was in fact made with bloody stork. Barf!!
I do bake to request sometimes but home baking at work is generally really appreciated by everyone (whoever makes it, not just mine!) just as long as buttercream is made with proper butter not manky margarine

It can be expensive but I've now limited my repertoire for school bake sales to Victoria sponges, lemon shortbread biscuits, chocolate muffins with soft cheese frosting, and tablet. The only one that has to have butter is the tablet. I use Aldi flour, eggs, baking margarine, cocoa powder, caster sugar all the time. No one ever complains (to my face anyway).

Honestly hun, it's not that much when u consider a cup of coffee and a cake can make a world of difference . For example, last tueday in costa, i couldnt stop eating the caramel slice!!! I polished off about 4 or 5 before I even felt a movement. They were about £3 each but I couldnt stop, im so baaad anyway,

best wishes
Fat Jann' (Jannit)

Personally I think any skill that historically was performed by women isn't given the respect and value its due - baking, dressmaking, embroidery, knitting, crochet etc. I see this frequently but recently saw someone online asking for a fabric item to be made, they offered to pay for their time or donate to a charity instead. Do solicitors, mechanics or plumbers get asked for their services in exchange for a donation to a charity of their choosing? I doubt it.

I agree with the first part of this post (saying traditional womens crafts/skills are underrated, and undervalued...)

I do disagree however, that other trades (typically more 'male' ones like plumbers and mechanics etc,) would not be asked to do stuff for free.

My brother is an I.T. expert (and works in I.T.) and he often gets people expecting freebies... 'just pop round and have a look at our kids' computer will ya? Only take 5 minutes won't it?' Also, my friend's son is a mechanic, and at least 2 or 3 times a month, he gets someone expecting him to take quick look at their car, repair it etc etc, for free ... I also know someone who is in a semi professional band who tour round the UK, (and Europe) who gets asked frequently to perform for nothing. It will be good for your 'exposure' they get told! Like exposure can pay the rent and bills.

Same situation with a hairdresser I know, a plumber I know, and a gardener I know........

So yeah, it happens to a lot of people.

Re the baking cakes; as had been said, it is far too expensive now, and what I do (when asked for things like this,) is buy little fairy cakes from Lidl or Tesco (plain ones,) for about a pound for 12, and spread ready-made icing on them, and then decorate them with 100s and 1000s, and dried fruit and various decorations.

I don't claim they are made from scratch, but then I don't say they're not either. They don't ask... so there is no need to say anything. They are just normally chuffed to get the cakes!

It definitely can be expensive, but I see it as a hobby and most hobbies cost money (some a lot more).

I agree that bake sales don't make sense for this reason. But that's the case for many fund-raising things really. For example - why is it a thing to get people to sponsor you on a walk/sky dive/mountain climb and donate the money to charity? Why not just go to work every day you would be training, then donate all your wages?

Possibly the answer is that some people are happy to have fun making a cake then donate it, but wouldn't donate the cost of ingredients straight up (where's the fun in that?).

Yep!

A friend has asked me to bake some cupcakes for her this weekend. She asked a few weeks ago, confirmed numbers yesterday, then added that 3 of them need to be dairy free! So another trip to the supermarket for dairy free ingredients. I had to explain to her why I cannot just make 3 dairy free cupcakes, they'll all have to be dairy free 🙄

Yes baking is definitely more expensive. I bake lots of different items/ snacks for my toddler a few times a week as I try and keep to natural ingredients. The items I bake you can buy for £1 to £3, and with all the fruit and butter it costs me a lot more.

It's the same with making homemade fish pie, Shepard pies, tarts and fish cakes but it's worth it to know it's all good ingredients as its lovely and homely.

I did give my uncle £50 for my sons 1st birthday cake now I realise the cost.

I must admit I had never even given it a thought when people had brought in baked goods at work previously, but now I'm a regular baker I realise.

Similarly knitting is an expensive hobby!
All that hard work ( enjoyable though) and it’s not guaranteed to fit / suit at the end ..... and the wool, pattern and needles are not cheap!

I love baking and would rather go without than eat the muck served up as a so called cake in a supermarket, i like to add a little wholemeal flour and find it doesn't make the sponge heavy but it is more filling, my mum taught me this, she didn't like all white flour.

Ok its expensive but you don't need to use all butter, however i wouldn't bake for others, they ve two hands and a cooker and can learn themselves.

I am amazed at the numbers of people who can't even cook a basic meal, let alone biscuits or a cake.

It does really add up, but the flip side is that you do end up with a store cupboard of stuff if you bake regularly. To buy all the ingredients outright each time IS expensive, but if you've already got cocoa powder, vanilla, flour and sugar, then it's just some extra eggs and butter on the weekly shop (for example).

That said, my mother always baked with Stork, as did most other women around us. Cakes tasted just as good (and it's a hell of a lot easier to cream)!

I tend to bake things that use the same ingredients so that I still have it in for next time. I try and avoid things that include stuff I will only use the once. I also remember that cakes of the same quality that I make are expensive to buy. I imagine yours definitely come in the luxury category too rather than basic.

Didn't Mary Berry always recommend Stork?

You can make a perfectly edible 'normal' cake cheaply.

It gets expensive when you start adapting it for dietary requirements - I don't believe there's an alternative to Doves Farm GF flour, for example.

You probably could use cheap eggs - but I refuse to buy non-free range. Point of principle.

I would only use butter for buttercream and shortbread. El cheapo marge for fat in cakes and cookies. Well - unless you need the special vegan kind. Then the cost goes up again... You get the idea...

Struggling to work out how a plain sponge can be £5. @nikkylou

Butter is around £1.50 for the cheapest and you don't need 250gms, only 2/3rds of the block.

It's a waste of money buying 'good eggs' for cakes. I buy free range always but even in Waitrose you can get 6 'essential 'eggs for £1 and you only need 3.

Sugar and flour- 6 oz of each- dirt cheap.

Add all of that up and it's under £2, bit of jam, bit of icing sugar.

How are you spending £5?

I bake relatively cheaply I guess - but since my comparator for shop-bought cakes is gluten-free cakes I always know I'm ahead with my own! Stork block is what I was brought up on, and what I still use - because it is I think dairy free (the tubs aren't), and that's the other allergy we've got in the family. I'm surprised by people who say they need to get eggs in for baking - we go through a steady supply so they are something I always have in stock.

I remember the year my son's class were in charge of the cake stall at the school fete; cakes were supposed to be sold for 50p IIRC so I decorated small cupcakes fairly generously with this price point in mind. The other mums panicked early that we weren't going to be able to sell everything and wanted to drop all the prices. They did sell everything (bar some of my stuff that i pulled out because there was another function the next day they were useful for) - but I think they could have sold most of it for more overall return. I didn't contribute to the cake stall at the fete again.

Now my Christmas cakes are another matter - I don't dare add up what they cost!! Mind you, the last of them is sitting waiting for a bit of extra decoration to turn it into our Easter cake. Seriously considering crystallised primroses from the garden ...

I have always made my kids cakes. And if I do say so myself, I've got good over the years. But with getting good comes all the requests. And I'm too nice mug to charge people what my time is actually worth.
But they do say good cakes not cheap and cheap cakes not good.

Yes baking is expensive compared to shop bought cakes, but homemade taste better.

I also think it depends if you keep 'baking' ingredients in you kitchen.

I tend to get get flour, chocolate chips, cranberries and cherries along with Vanilla extract from Costco. I use Asda cooking butter and eggs on hand. My mum makes jam (from fruit from her garden and my sister's allotment) and lemon curd so I always have that.

I think the trick is to cook basic cakes and not the 'latest' cake.

@JinglingHellsBells

Normally butter £1.50 a block...can't buy 2/3 a block...
Then Eggs £1+, free range large ones
Cream - a big tub of double cream not Elmea £1.50
£1.50 - £2 nice jam. I get you don't have to buy nice jam and your 50p value stuff is fine but nice cake with all the effort should have nice jam.

If completely from scratch, then £1 each on caster sugar and flour. Again, can't buy half a bag.

I do enjoy it and bake 2 - 3 things at once. Today I spent £15, and baked brownies, raspberry and orange cupcakes and cheese scones. Work will love me! It's not much really and it'll be much more delicious that shop bought (not boasting!), but I could have spent a fiver and got just as much for far less effort.

It's far more cost as well when it's not planned, and people want jam, buttercream, ganache and decoration!

I think though, I'm going to take some ideas from others and get cheaper ingredients!

Christmas cakes are a shocker...cost of all those different dried fruit and nuts plus alcohol...far cheaper to buy shop bought, even a high quality one.

I used to bake the most divine chocolate brownies, but as I used fancy cacao and two different kinds of chocolate for the chunks they often ended up costing just shy of £20 for two small trays.

But then I think this with a lot of things, those family sized pasta ready meals are far cheaper than you could make yourself due to the cost of mince and cheese.

Yes! I always spend lots on ingredients. I only buy the best of everything. The only thing I wouldn’t do is pay for a slice of my own cake.
Only yesterday I thought that when people ask for cakes to sell for a good cause it would actually be cheaper- and easier- to give them 10 or 20£!
My cakes are good though. I made 36 cupcakes for my son’s class yesterday. The children looked happy.

I have this as well with work. A lady asked me for some biscoff millionaires shortbread. She was shocked when the ingredients alone came to £9 and that was not including stuff I'd already got! I do enjoy baking, but I agree it's not cheap, even though I go to Aldi etc. The only branded thing I buy is Stork - all the own brand version seem to go really soggy, especially in buttercream.

“Yes! I always spend lots on ingredients. I only buy the best of everything. ”

I suppose it depends what you mean by “the best”. If you mean free range organic eggs and organic butter then that’s a valid choice. If you mean Tate and Lyle’s sugar and McDougall’s flour rather than supermarket own brand, then that’s more questionable.

Incidentally, I bake for a pretty posh cafe, and I use soft marge for most cakes. Tastes great, reliable, easier to use and significantly cheaper.