To think this kind of baking, isn't really baking?

[user8558]

I'm a member of a baking group on FB. Where people take photos of what they've baked that day. That's all. It's nice.

But over half of these creations are based on some other kind of baked good/biscuit/chocolate/confectionery.

Mars bar and Malteser slice, Biscoff and Rolo cheesecake, chocolate orange and Toblerone brownies.

Maybe I'm just hangry.

But it's a bit annoying. Why is everyones baking using branded goods that already exist?!

Am starving now reading this.

Look, all ingredients come from somewhere, unless of course you have your own cows and get dairy from them and your own flour mill....

Most cakes these days have well known ingredients in them.

I agree in principle that it’s not what you would expect from a baking group but atm there are still problems with eggs and flour in some areas so maybe that’s why people go for rocky roads and non-baked cheesecakes.

@Oncewasblueandyellowtwo

My friend made a two tier cake from scratch for my DCs birthdays. I was really impressed that she even made buttercream from scratch for it too. Is that kind of what you mean? It's a great skill to have.

Impressed that someone can mix butter and sugar? You have set the bar very low

Yes, I agree OP. So I ticked YANBU. Too drunk to explain why.

So a brownie with choc chips would be ok versus one with chopped toblerone in it?
You sound bored, maybe join a few more groups or get out more so you're not so particular.

If it goes in an oven then it's baking- it doesn't matter what the ingredients are.

TheFormerPorpentiaScamander

I have learned how to make/bake butterfly cakes after weeks of lockdown so yes

I don't see how a distinction between branded and non-branded ingredients could define baking. I make a Speculoos flavoured cake. It's a sponge cake which happens to have Speculoos as one of the ingredients. It's ridiculous to suggest that it's not a proper act of baking in the way that the same cake flavoured with coffee instead of Speculoos but with otherwise identical ingredients would be.

Some things are not real baking from scratch, like packet mixes. If people want to make them, fine, but I wouldn't be sharing them in a baking group. But there's no difference between a cake which uses Malteasers rather than unbranded cooking chocolate chips.

Of your examples, I have no idea what a 'slice' is in that context. A cheesecake may or may not be baked but definitely requires effort to make from scratch and is more than just layering up pre-existing ingredients, so it's fine unless people are being deliberately pedantic. Brownies do require baking, unless I've been doing Brownies wrong all along.

op, did your group recently have a cake mix with coke added?

.... but yes, just because it's got composite things in it doesn't mean it's not baked.

Cheesecakes aren't baked anyway unless you mean those abominations, but nobody complains about one made using digestive biscuits and a packet of jelly

@Oncewasblueandyellowtwo

Fair enough and well done. Did you make buttercream for the butterfly cakes?

Cheesecake isn't baking

Cakes,Danish,bread,at a push scones & biscuits...

But not puddings Or slices/tray bakes

@merryhouse 😱 I can’t believe what you’ve said. baked cheesecakes are the only proper cheesecakes, not those fridge set monstrosities!

TheFormerPorpentiaScamander

No.I thought that was a very hard thing to do!I mixed

@NearlyGranny husband made puff pastry the other day. He said it wasn't difficult, just time-dependent. It involved a lot of putting things in the fridge (and for half an hour, the freezer).

His contribution to the lore is to draw out the size you want the butter to be onto the paper before you start, then you don't have to keep stopping to measure it.

This thread is making me want to bake. No eggs to had around these parts so it might have to be shortbread. Or cookies. Or something

Why does the addition of a branded ingredient stop it being baking? I'm still keen to try that Guinness cake mentioned on a thread the other day.

@vinoelle that is basically a Declaration, right there (checks silos)

I’m off to plant an ear of wheat , so that I can grind it into flour, it should be ripe by the time my calf is old enough to be milked and the sugar cane is ready to be stripped.
Hopefully my incubated egg will hatch out in time to lay her own eggs for me to collect...
Should have started planning earlier I think 🤔

not those fridge set monstrosities

You'd hate the ones I used to make, they involved lemon jelly and Dream Topping. And cream cheese of course.

I thought you were going to come on here complaining about Betty Crocker or those horrendous pancake shaker bottle things. YABU.

And baked cheesecake is the only cheesecake. There is no place for gelatine in a cheesecake.

I do shortcrust pastry in a flash in a food processor Even by hand it's quick. No point in Jus-rol shortcrust, it's more faff to get it out of the deepfreeze and defrost than it is to start from scratch. As you say, puff (and filo) is a different matter.

Come now, Samtsirch, what about vanilla? Haven't you planted whatever it is that produces vanilla pods? You're years behind already. No idea how long it takes to grow a cocoa tree (cacao?) but I bet that's a long-term project too.

The cheesecake we always make is
Crushed biscuits and melted butter for the base. (Whichever biscuits you fancy. Gingernuts are good.) Mix. Put in cake tin. In fridge.

Mix cream, cream cheese and icing sugar (cant remember the quantities). Spread on base. Chill. Eat.

No baking (or gelatine) involved.

You'd hate the ones I used to make, they involved lemon jelly and Dream Topping. blush And cream cheese of course

Nostalgia alert

wipes chin