Pastries and Caked absolutely everywhere

[istheheatingonyet]

Being an oldie I can remember a slice of birthday cake was a great treat.
Now they are everywhere. Since lockdown there are coffee vans every 5 minutes, sausage rolls. At our " farmers market" there is stall after stall selling cake. A recently opened cafe selling cup cakes is absolutely booming.

Big change.

Also the whole “everyone baked at home” - when are we talking about? Because Sainsburys in the 80s had a long aisle full of cakes. Fondant fancies were my Gran’s Sunday afternoon treat. Mr Kipling slices were fabulously full of additives.

Jam tarts though, I’ve not had a jam tart for years. I might have to add them to the list with scone for baking this week.

I'm talking 70s/80s. There may have been lots of cakes available, but we rarely had them. At least not when my gran was still alive anyway.

What is your problem exactly?

I have to resist treats like a well-trained Labrador. If I didn't, I'd be the size of an elephant 🤣

I love cake and the abundance of cake choices. Long may it continue. A few weird puritans on this thread.

1970s/80s
I'm talking about my aunts/ granny so they would have been 40 /50 ?
They wouldn't have served Mr Kipling although my mum did as she hated cooking .

Whaaaaaaaatttttt?! <faints>

It's too sickly because they make it wrong, wrong I tell you!

It should be mostly butter with a some icing sugar, but to save money, they seem to make it now with mainly icing sugar with a bit of butter.

So wrong...

There is a lovely cafe near me and I had lemon and lavender polenta cake yesterday.
Was lovely

Now that's more like it. Sounds delicious

You made me homesick with the vibrating fillings comment. Time to go home to where the tarts live.

Oooh scones.

The cakes in cafes are far too big and £4+ a slice! I'd sooner have a smaller portion and pay less.

I’m also in my 50s and you know full well there’s far more nowadays 😄. Coffee shops barely existed when I was in my teens and 20s now you can’t move for them. And PP is right about the insane size of the slices - it’s little wonder we have an obesity epidemic 😢

Reading this sat eating a Greggs croissant.

Yes! A bite to eat, another one of my late mothers sayings. Now it's a bloody big bite.

@FancyBiscuitsLevel in the bleak Northern outpost of my youth there were no teashops. A bakers had a few red plastic chairs where you could drink a cup of tea ( coffee hadn't been invented). There was an odd, rather formal cafe with lace table cloths.

Still don't like it, sorry. Fresh cream for me, every time 😋

Life changes. When I grew up, we had cake on a Wednesday (if funds permitted) when my Mum when to local butcher/baker - if not, we just enjoyed some fresh crusty bread. Only time I ever remember going to a cafe was when my Mum had to collect/buy things in town for my Dad's business. She had to take me and if there was a delay in something being ready, we had a treat then. There weren't that many family friendly restaurants, so eating out as a family was limited.

Things have moved on. People want more from life and treats, and many can have them and still pay the bills. Eating out and making bad choices on a regular basis isn't good for your health (although people can still enjoy and make better choices or ensure they have something totally healthy for meals later), but it keeps people in work and economy going.

I love cake. But why, in most places, does it all have to be chocolate/have chocolate icing/chocolate decorations? Where is the lovely cake that ISN'T chocolate? (I can't eat chocolate these days, it makes me very sick and I am VERY CROSS about this).

Coffee shops existed long before you were in your twenties (about 300 years before)and were pretty common, though obviously not in the same format or number as now.

@HipToTheHopDontStop in all honesty in my town there were no coffee shops. Coffee was rarely drunk and not as an " event" or " an experience" I recall the first Nero opening here in this suburb. Quite a change.

@Iliketulips eating out! That's a funny one. I had my first meal out aged about 15 or 16 I think? Then there was the era of the steak and chips and black forest gateau.I remember an influx of Italian restaurants in the Northern Outpost. It really was shocking stuff.

This was my point though
We had cake at HOME or grannys/ Auntie's
Loafs of lovely cake
Cake is a new thing my arse
The difference is no one burns it off!

I'm in my early 60s. Yes there were fewer coffee shops but there were still cafes, bakeries and what we called 'confectioners'. To be honest they were still bakeries but erred more towards cakes and lunchtime pies, pasties, sandwiches, etc. We had two or three confectioners within walking distance of our house on the edge of town - although to be fair there was also a large employer nearby and nice picnic spot.

My Mum baked but we had fresh cream cakes from the confectioners as a regular treat, particularly if we had a day out. If we went to the next town shopping we would always get lunch and a cream cake. Confectioners also tended to be highly skilled, making their products on the premises rather than buying in.

Despite home made cake at home and the occasional fresh cream cake, I yearned for 'shop bought cake' and there was plenty around in the shops. I still love a really good synthetic cake - ideally in an alarming shade of pink or yellow.

Cake has always been around, albeit with different trends, but I just think there was less disposable income then. A lot of things were more expensive, including food, despite so many people thinking it was the land of milk and honey in those days. Chicken, for example, was as Sunday roast treat and not a ubiquitous cheap food.

There’s always been cake.

My mother couldn’t bake anything but we still had cake.
Mr Kipling cakes of all
types, packet ginger cake or fruit cake, supermarket jam tarts, misshaped cakes from the market stall (cheaper), sugared hot donuts from the donut van at the market. My nan used to let us make carrot cake from a mix as a treat, and we used to have those packet mix fairy cakes for kids all the time with edible stickers of whatever was trending, like Thomas tank. Mr blobby iced buns from the bakery near the bus stop.

None of them luxury or fancy, or rarely homemade, but lots of cake. We were all really skinny kids also.

Now we make most homemade, mainly as I don’t like the overly sweet type. Lemon drizzle tray bake, ginger loaf, mince pies, cookies type of thing. We probably bake something twice a month on average, so we aren’t eating daily like I used to as a child

Growing up in the 60’s and 70’s my mother baked every week. There was always a variety of cakes available in the house. A shop bought cake was an unusual treat. I eat much less cake now than I did then. I enjoy baking but we don’t routinely eat cake so I seldom do it.

I agree. I remember 20 years ago seeing pastries in the train station on my morning commute and thinking how very extravagant it would be to buy one... but I never did.

Now they're everywhere along with cakes and yes I do partake because it's become so normalised to have a 'treat'. I deserve it etc etc

I'm two stone overweight now also

ski Blackcurrant yoghurt. Still miss it.