What is the point of baking?

[waitingforautumn]

OK to cover myself - I'm actually not a bad baker (promise! :)) my issue is that baking - while highly therapeutic, is not necessarily cheap, and it leaves you with a commitment to eating the baked good all week!! (doesn't sound like a bad thing does it...). Cakes in particular are quite hard to scale down.

AIBU to just prefer a supermarket / cafe slice of cake etc to spare myself the faff and expense of baking, and the smaller/individual portion sizes?! I know they are rarely as good as the home baked kind but some of them can be very decent. I get FOMO for not baking when a lot of friends and family do it - they make it look so fun and rewarding! Yet when I bake I totally lose interest in the final product after I've had one portion.

I spent a large chunk of last weekend baking a half size chocolate cake (it could still feed 10 tbh!), and by the end I just wish I'd gone to M&S lol. Especially now, 4 days later, when the fam are all bored of it and the remainder of this cake is just sitting there uneaten, getting drier and drier every day... yet we all feel too guilty to throw it away. It wasn't a very nice recipe actually. Not chocolatey enough and was on the dry side to begin with. But thats just part of the risk of trying a new recipe I suppose.

Or am I just missing the point of baking???? Is it supposed to be something people only do when feeding a crowd? How often do you bake and why do you do it? Does it all get eaten?? If you crave something in particular are you more likely to bake it or go out and buy it?

Look if you tried baking and it’s not for you then stop. There’s nothing to understand about baking or any hobby some people like it some people don’t.

I don’t understand this obsession people have with thinking someone or my peers enjoy doing this thing I should enjoy it too and if I don’t there’s something wrong with me.

Stop following the crowd. You are not a sheep. If everyone takes on baking during lockdown you don’t have to as well. Just find what you enjoy and do that.

You don’t have to bake, buy your cakes from the shop if you want to and if you do you’re no better or worse than your friends or family.
Personally I love baking been doing it since uni days.

Like a pp, I make cakes, scones, biscuits and oat bars etc, because otherwise dh and teens buy cakes from the supermarket that are far too sweet and are full of artificial flavourings.

I bake most Mondays and any surplus goes to school with DDs or to our office (well they did before lockdown).

But I tend to make lemon cakes, gingerbread, scones with home made jam, Yorkshire parkin , barabrith , flapjacks, apple pie, fruit tarts, and I reduce the sugar as much as possible, so in moderate quantities I don't think they are that bad.

I love baking. Very therapeutic and creative. A great activity to do with my son. And it always gets eaten!

I love cooking from scratch because my brain is programmed to Grandma and my Mum. They both had a real fire under the oven. Everything tasted so good. My cakes don't rise, my Yorkshire puddings are flat with modern day ovens. I would say it doesn't matter how flat your cake is just make loads of butter cream with lurpak real butter and be happy lol xxx

What??! Give me home baked any day. Anything I bake lasts five minutes. I batch cook cakes and freeze them. Found a particularly good recipe last week for chocolate, banana and hazelnut cake online and the basic choc cake on bbc website is always a winner.

Don’t throw away stale or leftover cake....throw it out for the birds, they will love it 😍

I've never had stale cake.

I hate shop bought cake! Don’t get me started in fake cake! Like that Costco shit. It’s easier to bake and freeze!

Or should I say, I've never had cake go stale.

@TallFriendlyGinger

And loopylou you don't sound like a very nice friend 😂 bit rude there!

I was thinking the same. How mean.

Costco cakes are not good.

We bake a lot of biscuits (they don’t last long with plenty of tea) but the beauty is they can be frozen too when the novelty’s worn off

I wouldn’t be too bothered about binning a cake you don’t particularly like though, life’s too short to eat bad cake

I once spent many hours, and £££s, making a Christmas cake, homemade marzipan, icing and all. The family decided they didn’t like fruit cake! A friend and I had a couple of slices. It was really nice! But never made that mistake again. My chocolate birthday cake, a la delia Smith recipe, however, is a winner.
Also enjoy baking bread. Soda bread is great and so easy.

No way - I love baking.
I bake 2 - 3 items each weekend.
Banana bread - often vegan version.
Ginger cake, oaty healthy rock cakes & have a German sour dough cake on the go.
I provide our elderly neighbour with cake for the week. We all take some for packed lunch.
Never ever ever get bored!

I much prefer baking cakes (not a bad baker) .
In fact today I made tiffin (granted not cake but not shop bought) .
Im on my own so don't do it often but enjoy it if (when???) people come over.
I can taste added raising agents in shop bought stuff, especially scones and don't buy them because of this.
My mum was the same.
For those with dry chocolate cake find a recipe that uses oil instead of butter. I find this makes a difference.
If you do have some left over after a few days (WTAF is that about?? 😱) pour some hot custard over it, instant pudding 😋

You haven’t found the right lemon drizzle recipe if you prefer shop bought... I find the home baked ones have gooey drizzle bits through the sponge, but shop ones the drizzle doesn’t seem to penetrate properly.... but I do go to town with a cocktail stick, and make sure to pour some down the holes.... but in general I kind of agree... I like making a cake and have found some great recipes... but some of them are very time consuming (the drizzle isn’t thankfully) and even though really nice cake it mostly goes in the bin... I should have had loads of children instead of one I think.

I love baking and my kids too if they can be arsed which most of the time they cba but will scoff it all I tend to bake a big batch of Scones, brownies, plain sponges & freeze them. So I only bake once a month or so & it doesn't become a chore then.

I was never a baker but loved my own lasagna shepherds pies.

Home made cake wouldn't last that long in our house. To stop cake drying out, pin a slice of bread to each of the cut surfaces with cocktail sticks.

I absolutely adore baking. Love that what looks like a few simple ingredients I always have in my cupboard no can make something so delicious. Just made some salted caramel expresso brownies which were amazing and my lemon drizzle is to die for. I’ve trialed lots of different recipes and now have top ones I know off my heart. I love making pastry as well. I find it really relaxing.

This is why I like baking loaf cakes - double the recipe and you get one cake that's not too much to finish in a few days and put the second one in the freezer for later

I agree with you OP - for me I think it’s that I have a short attention span when it comes to food. The whole process of deciding which cake to make, checking what ingredients I have, buying ingredients, making the cake, baking it, clearing up.... by then I’m already bored of whatever cake it is!

I’d much rather just go to a cafe, see a slice of cake that I fancy, buy it, eat it, all done!

YAabsolutelynotBU

And I say that as someone who finds baking very enjoyable.

But......agree with all the points you made in your OP 😊

I don’t have much of a sweet tooth but I enjoy the odd slice of cake, maybe once a week/fortnight, particularly if it’s something like a sharp lemon drizzle or something carroty and nutty. None of our 3 children like cake (one just eats the icing off birthday cakes, one will only eat a certain chocolate ganache cake and one won’t touch any of it). H loves cake and would eat a whole one in one go, but he asks me not to tempt him.

I do get enjoyment from baking though and I have a trade deal with a local farmer and I trade cakes for produce, I also make cakes for friends and H’s guitar teacher and work colleagues.

Agree, the solution is to get a dog.
As 'ye olde Englishe' saying goes...
"Why have a dog and bake yourself?"