Have people just got a lot better at baking?

[Sunflowering]

Or is it just me?

When I was little (born late 70s) home baking was a popular pastime but generally the things people made weren't that brilliant- homemade bread was always like a brick, homemade cake was generally an overcooked sponge that had gone a bit wrong or rock cakes. Or chocolate cake made by swapping a spoonful of flour for cocoa. All gratefully eaten by me obviously but pretty hit and miss.

Now everyone I know who bakes (including myself) makes things which are pretty much as good as you'd get from a professional baker. Homemade bread is a treat. Cakes are almost always perfect and far more elaborate than anyone would have attempted at home in the 70s-80s.

Just wondered if other people had found this? I can think of various reasons- the popularity of baking shows as inspiration, the internet as a source of knowledge, people maybe spending more on ingredients, more reliable ovens etc. But I wondered whether other people had noticed the phenomenon. Maybe my mum and her friends were just shit cooks, but even my mum has upped her game now.

Yep I agree. A PTA cake sale or whatever used to basically just be shitty little fairy cakes, maybe a glacé cherry on top if you were lucky. Now the charity cake sales are like bloody GBBO! People have got good at piping in particular and like more indulgent cakes than used to be common. My mum always comments about how she will rarely want anything from a bakery now because it’s always laden with butter icing or rich frosting or super heavy and chocolatey etc. Back in the day a slice of cake was quite simple and people simply couldn’t afford to use half a block of butter just on icing etc.

Also can be observed in kids birthday cakes which used to either be a supermarket purchase for us 80s kids, or maybe a homemade vanilla tray bake which your mum would then make a shit attempt at cutting into a shape or number. Now people either seem to spend £50+ on professionally made cakes (even for a toddlers birthday which IMO is madness and a total waste of money) or baking elaborate homemade cakes.

I agree with what you’ve written and also I think the ingredients have been cheaper for a long time (until recently). I wonder without the big increase in food prices if we’ll simplify a bit again.

You can buy a cake mix in a box now

I wonder if it’s more that nowadays those that are shit at baking don’t have to because it’s so much easier to buy nice cakes, bread etc in the shops. Those that are still baking are those that are good at it (or are keen to practice until they get good).

I do think there are more food magazines/websites/programmes to encourage people now though so it’s much easier to find out where you might be going wrong to improve.

I think electric ovens are better. My oven growing up was crap. I thought i didnt have the gift for baking. My oven now is much better and suddenly i can bake.

I think equipment (electric whisks, stand mixers, electric scales....) are commonplace and accessibly priced now. Ovens and such are more reliable.

Inspiration is easy to find online. The Internet has exposed us to all sorts of cool decorative ideas and flavour combinations which people might not have come up with themselves but are excited to try.

Good recipes are all over the place. Quality baking book and online sites have made good results easy to come by.

I've noticed this too. I think it's because we have access to so many more recipes online and ideas on Pinterest!

This. One of the Mum's at DCs school confessed that she always buys cake mix and then ices herself.

I think the internet and YouTube have a lot to do with it. When I was a kid most homes would have one or two cookbooks and the ingredients came from the parade of shops round the corner. Now we can look up recipes from around the world, learn icing from YouTube and find an online supplier for any exotic ingredients necessary.

Plus as a previous poster pointed out, ingredients cost less as a percentage of people's budgets, and also tins, gadgets, piping bags, mixers are all plentiful and affordable too.

I hate the trend for masses of garish oversweet buttercream on everything though. I miss plain Madeira cake and rock buns.

I also think the internet has meant you can easily buy more unusual pieces of equipment (i.e Bundt tins) that unless you lived in a big town were hard to get hold of.

my bundt tin is from the lidl random aisle!!! Though I guess that demonstrates how normalised baking what might have previously been 'unusual' things has become.

It’s easier to get better at baking when you have so much information on how to do it, along with tips and tricks to make it easier, less time-consuming, and with less equipment. YouTube is a wealth of information from all over the world and is great for beginners. Many people who love to bake have their own blogs with recipes and videos to follow along with and with Covid, people were stuck inside so has the time to try new things and found they either enjoyed it or dislikes it.

I agree. I occasionally bake and make fairy cakes or sponges (plain or chocolate, sometimes lemon or orange). Shortbread, flapjacks. This seems pretty poor by today’s baking repertoire standards but would have been fine forty years ago.

And yet the number of times I've had truly bad cake from a cafe is depressing........sadly my personal standards for what constitutes good cake are obviously far too high!

I think it’s YouTube!
Back in the 70s you either got a cake recipe that didn’t explain things very well. Or you watched someone on tv while frantically scribbling notes with no way to rewind if you missed a bit. Did she say a teaspoon or tablespoon?

Also cost was an issue. My grandma was an excellent baker, but she never taught any of her four daughters because she wouldn’t risk wasting the ingredients if they messed up. And why eat beginner cake when you can have a perfect one?

I agree. Even the most basic pineapple upside down cake or Betty Crocker Lemon Drizzle Mixture cake gets rave reviews from my mum and family etc. I think home made cake is so much more superior to store bought now. Maybe that's what's happened, store bought has gone down in quality so home made is the treat.

I am a very lazy baker, it's all about taste for me, no decoration bar buttercream or melted chocolate.

Agreed, I don't even get the cupcake hype, Hummingbird or Lola's or that have you. It all just tastes dry. For the cost of one of those I can bake a whole spong cake.

No. I went to a school bake sale recently and it was very hit and miss. Mostly miss.

I think it's a number of things.

Our expectations for cakes have become more elaborate. Just look at what's for sale in a bakery or a supermarket compared to 15 or 20 years ago.

Popular shows like GBBO which have generated a shift in the nation's psyche.

Access to more varied and cheaper ingredients.

Access to more sophisticated baking equipment.

Access to a huge variation of recipes and techniques on the internet and the ability to show off your own baking, creating more content etc.

I find that looks can be deceiving. People can either bake or decorate, rarely both.

The simple old style fairy cakes with glacé icing and maybe a few sweets disappear quick at cake sales... lots of people don't want more icing than cake.

I think home baking has gotten better simply because we better understand cooking times, ingredients ratios, have lots of tools and devices to simplify complex time consuming methods etc. Plus social media cultivates a competitive streak in people to bake elaborate products in an effort to outdo others, lots of style but maybe not so much substance when you cut in a little deeper…

We had a BeRo cook book. That was all that was needed and the baking was great - sponges light and bread excellent. Baking is still great, just a wider variety of stuff and with different ingredients sometimes. I never made muffins or brownies when I was younger, but I still make the same (BeRo) scones.

Better equipment? The good bakers I knew as a dc are still great now.

Maybe people are more honest nowadays with the crappy bakers?