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?

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

Well, I wouldn’t say it to her face TallFriendlyGinger - I just smile and say it’s delicious!

flour in aldi is 40p for 1.5kg
sugar is i think about 60p for a kg
thats most of your ingredients there

we bake more in winter because its a way to heat up the house and you get to bake presents haha

I sound poor. lol. tight.

I bake because I enjoy it and I do think it’s tastes nicer than shop bought.
But also we have a couple of allergies in our house, most seriously DH’s couple of anaphylactic allergies, so home baking is easier as he more often than not cannot eat store bought due to the “may contain” listings on them.

But if supermarket cake tastes better than your homemade cake,maybe you need new recipes?!

Without blowing my own horn, I'm a very good baker (shame about my decorating skills though eh?!) I love baking and could happily much on my baked goods every day. However, thats not healthy so I can't

@sirfredfredgeorge

Half a cake last a family (at least 2 people, probably more given the "we all" rather than "we"?) more than 4 days, is this another competitive under eating thread?

I know. A standard sized home baked Victoria sponge lasts us 3-4 days between the 3 of us. If I did a half it would be gone in 2.

Ps my dh is a phenomenal baker.
granted when he started he wasn't that good but now her can knock out 8 rolls and 2 pizza bases with minimal effort and absolutely beautiful, as lovely as shop bought.
Plus while he's in there waiting for the dough to rise he usually makes a tray of brownies.

For me, I'm happy that most of the ingredients are paper wrapped so can be composted.
for him its a sense of achievement ( I hate baking)

Homemade cake is often better simply because it is freshly made, not chock full of add-ons that enable it to sit on a supermarket shelf for weeks. Also, I use butter not palm oil or any other rank fats.

Completely, 100% agree with you. For me now it’s only an activity to do with my toddler. I also cannot understand how regular hobby bakers stay thin. I just need to look at a cake and I gain another half a stone.

I bake because I enjoy the activity of baking. I also dislike shop cake. Generally shop cake and home made are 2 different animals. I make pastry, cakes, bread, biscuits, scones etc.. I freeze some, give some away and eat some. It’s a big part of family picnics (when permitted) and occasions for everyone to bring something they’ve made. Xmas baking happens for most of November/ December and I give home made Xmas cakes and things to close friends. It’s not cheaper than buying the equivalent from Aldi but I prefer it. My 10 year old DD makes a mean banana loaf so I guess it might be genetic

DD's brownies never hang around long enough for anyone to get bored! Maybe you just have better impulse control than us. Unless you are being very MN-chicken-y about it, one cake doesn't keep 4 people going for days on end.

Oh OP you must be a shocking baker if your cakes dont get eaten in 2 days and taste worse than shop bought ones ! If you dont enjoy it dont do it. We arent living in the 1950s .

I agree op. Baking is just yet more cooking and washing up with food that has little nutritional value at the end of it! .

I think it depends on the cake, I can do all the simple stuff everything else I buy, transfer it into my container, add some sprinkles, smudge a knife to throw in the dishwasher, sit back and accept all the glory
Totally stress free, I highly recommend it

I'm a very good baker (shame about my decorating skills though eh?!)
Cake decoration is one of my bugbears. Cake is made to be eaten, not looked at. Who cares about decoration? And who needs a cupcake that is more icing than cake.

Shop bought cakes are horrible! Texture ghastly, so so sweet, just awful.
I have never found any shop bought Victoria sandwich that is a patch on mine! (It is the only cake I do really well)

My only other option is to buy a cake at the Farm shop. They are homemade, just not in my home.
BUT... a coffee and walnut sponge is £6.50 and a victoria sandwich which is OK but not as nice as mine is £5.50.

Ridiculous prices.

I love baking, I find it so relaxing and there’s a delicious cake at the end of it. I prefer homemade cake to shop bought too, you know it’s good quality ingredients and none of the fake stuff in it. Shop bought birthday cake I find overly sweet. My problem is there’s always too much, DP is certain I’m trying to fatten him... yet always sulks when I take them into work!

I think shop bought cakes are often have too much sugar, so all you can taste is sweetness. I often reduce the sugar in mine so that you can actually taste stuff. Chocolate, lemon drizzle etc.

I've never really enjoyed it but I think that's because I don't have a sweet tooth. I could very happily never eat cake again. I think for people with a sweet tooth, the whole baking process would be more enjoyable because I love cooking dinners (love the carbs )

Such a massive disappointment when you spend £££ on all the ingredients (often as much as a bought cake) and loads of time baking, preparing, washing up and it all goes wrong or isn't very nice.

Yep, baking is not for me either. I will stick to cooking pasta.

It's not always a straight comparison...

Homemade scones that come out hot and fresh are the food of the gods (especially with jam and clotted cream). Your shop- bought scones just can't compare. Same with pancakes, although I suppose that's not really baking.

However... I think its weird to make toasties with anything other than shop-bought sliced bread. Certainly wouldn't use homemade bread for my cheese and ham toastie, it wouldn't fit in the machine.

Choc chip cookies are nicer when homemade... hot and soft and gooey.

But there is definitely a place for the artificial crap like penguin bars and Oreos in my life . Never understood how anyone cba to make home-made jaffa cakes.

@sirfredfredgeorge that was my first thought too, I'm struggling to think how small the slices of half a cake must be to last so long.

I prefer my own bread, brownies and shortbread so I bake those at home. I can't bake good cake so I don't bother!

For special occasions I do a banging treacle tart and I like making croissants because making the pastry is so fiddly that the end result feels very satisfying.

I do come from a family of professional bakers though, so a) I've had practice and b) shop bought was basically banned 😂

Nooo! I love baking, though tbh once I’ve finished I rarely feel like eating it as I eat so much of the cake batter and trimmings as I go along!

There’s only 3 of us in our house so I tend to make miniature versions of things - 4” cake tins or mini Bundt or Victoria sponge tubs are great for this. For me it’s a way to relax and be creative with decorating.

I don’t really enjoy other people’s baked goods that much, which I know sounds awful. I find myself judging buttercream that’s too soft etc

It's fun to do and it tastes so much nicer when freshly made.

Op cake pre iced freezes really well! Freeze it or give it away.
We did a street cake swap was ace in lockdown. Nom nom

Surely the best bit about baking is being able to lick out the bowl! I resent having to share with my kids nowadays ;-)