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.

I loved baking as a kid and all we had was a tatty old cookbook with a few recipes for cupcakes (then fairy cakes). I never even knew how to make butter cream icing and only did icing sugar and water. Whereas now my kids had access to all kinds of cake tins, cake pop tins, various shape tins, the internet at their finger tips to not only discover new ideas but step by step video instructions. Also financial, I’ve got spare money to allow us to experiment with baking. Finally the instruments that made decorating easier, the various tips for the icing bags that can form grass shapes, roses etc. All looks very elaborate with minimum effort

I think it's a mix

In the olden days people used to have to go to a class to learn to say decorate a cake or buy a specialist book. Now you can see on YouTube

Icing used to be royal icing and very tricky, now its frosting and it's much easier

Gas ovens with no thermostats to electric fan ovens makes timings much easier

You can now buy any specialist ingredients on the internet

Saying all that, my mum made me amazing cakes when I was younger, fairy castles, treasure chests with chocolate coins spilling out etc, they were amazing

I think there is more equipment now that helps you do better baking, like the fancy electric mixers.

My mother was a brilliant cook and baker. She cooked every day, there was no alternative in '60s/'70's and baked every week.

I'm not as good as I used to be when I was younger, primarily because I do it so little now. I genuinely think that practice makes perfect. It doesn't always follow that people are better today although I think that ingredients might be better.

I own a fancy mixer and use it for making bread or cookies which need butter but basic sponge type cakes I mix by hand and use soft margarine rather than butter as 1 DC is lactose intolerant. In a sponge you can't actually taste the difference.
My grans ginger cake recipe uses lard which gets melted I have substituted this with butter, but the lard is ok, gran was born in 1900 so this is probably a low cost reason.

American muffins with 3 inches of icing piled on the top, not so much.

Do you mean American cupcakes? American muffins don’t have icing on them.

I think it’s cos people can google recipes?! And also google what they’ve done wrong and not make that mistake again.

I have always, always loved baking - but when I was 9 my only source of recipes was a dubious translated cookbook from a discount book shop, or magazines. My mum and grandmother were not the baking kind.

In about 2005 I’d discovered websites with forums about cake decorating, so I started doing things like making my own fondant (which at the time wasn’t available in shops where I lived) and trying to make fancy cakes for my friends birthdays.

Then gradually it became more and more popular and suddenly by 2012 you had fondants in every colour in regular supermarkets, food blogs, youtube… It’s both easier to find the correct recipes, information on techniques, and the ingredients that used to be specialist once upon a time. And it’s fun.

Kenwood Chef came on the market in 1950. Probably extremely expensive in the early years. People have more disposable income now to spend on this kind of thing.

Handheld electric mixers were probably more expensive in the 1960s/1970s than they are now, relative to other things, but they can't have been that expensive, as my granny had one, and she was a not very affluent pensioner. I inherited it when she died and it soldiered on for many years. My current one was from Argos and cost a few quid.

Baking was a thrifty thing when I was growing up, not something done for enjoyment. My mum used to make miserable things like rock buns and biscuits that didn't require much fat, sugar, or any egg. This was the 70s, but she carried on as if we still had rationing. I really don't know why, we weren't poor, and I think all of us would rather have had no rock buns.

I bake for fun and treats. It's a hobby thing, not a 'must make as much as I can with tiny amounts of three ingredients' thing.

I don't know what kind of ovens other people had in the 1970s but I grew up with electric ovens (still my preference now) and never had any issues with the thermostat.

We had Royal icing on the Christmas cake and it was a faff (and I didn't eat it). For other cakes, a blob of buttercream or glace icing (water and icing sugar) was the most that was expected. Ready-made fondant icing was a novelty I remember from the early 1990s. Looks OK but tastes of nothing but sugar. My preference was always for chocolate fudge icing, recipe from the sainted Delia Smith. Very easy, tastes nice.

I only discovered when I left home and equipped my own kitchen that scales and recipes make all the difference! My mother's 1970s method was to 'measure' by dolloping flour out with a spoon and basically make it up as as she went along. Her baking was as awful as you might expect.

I think Baking has improved without a doubt but then I think the general standard of all types of cooking for many households is much better now than the 60s & 70s , we have access to a much wider range of ingredients, and more international than previously. Appliances are better , cookers , ovens , hobs etc are much more accurate . The small appliances are unbelievable compared to 30 or 40 years ago. Gadgets are commonplace . There is an almost unlimited supply of recipes available on the internet and many groups where you can ask questions if you are unsure or have had a failure in the past that needs correcting
Whilst cooking is still a necessity it has also become a hobby where good amateur cooks strive to become better .
loads of invaluable advice and inspiration from cookery tv programmes , mini clips on cookery via the web and real life cookery lessons available to those able to pay
GBBO has given baking a huge nudge forwards and made it fashionable , The cake and bake exhibitions are always packed with visitors ,
Years ago a friend and I used to go to the clandestine cake club , CCC, we made loads of lovely friends, ate endless amounts of cake and talked about all sorts ( such a sad day when this came to an end ) whilst getting great ideas on baking

I think fashions in decoration have changed, too - to things that are more dramatic but less detailed.

My nan "did sugarcraft" as her hobby and she used to make tiny intricate photo-realistic flowers from icing sugar and tiny twists of waxed wire, over the course of weeks, and then lay the sprays onto absolutely smooth flawless white royal icing bases with tiny piped dots like hard lace around the edge - a style now only seen in very old fashioned wedding cakes.

Nowadays, being skilled at icing involves bright bold colours, air brushing, stencils, big buttercream piping, layers of fondant rolled on in relief etc - still very creative and very easy to muck up but a lot larger-scale and more forgiving.

I miss my mum's cakes. Ginger cake, lemon drizzle, sponge with jam. Proper ordinary cake for "pudding"... to fill us up before bedtime. Cake used to be cheap to make. Stork, flour, eggs and a little sugar or syrup. Nowadays cakes are fancier and a heck of a lot sweeter and richer, I would not say better or nicer.

I’ve seen videos on Facebook of cakes made to look like everyday objects or even savoury foods. They are very clever but they don’t look that appetising.

Combination of more access to recipes and techniques, better equipment and ovens, better quality ingredients.

I use butter and 00 flour and caster sugar for my cakes. My mother used bog standard self-raising flour, margarine and granulated sugar. She replaced an egg with a tablespoon of milk. It all makes a difference.

Weirdly the recipe I always get asked to make is a hobnob one from money saving expert which I saw years and years ago
They're kind of like a cross between hobnobs and a flapjack. Last time I made 100 and work demolished the lot

Lemon drizzle cake always goes down well too

My mum baked lovely cakes and biscuits in the 1970s and 80s, most weekends we'd have a baking session to make something nice for tea. We mostly used one recipe book - the Dairy Book of Home Cookery. My grandma also used to make and decorate cakes to order and was a very good baker of fruit cakes. I've never been keen on thick buttercream or lots of frosting which is what a lot of modern cakes seems to rely on.

I think this an area where the fact that many people are financially better off (and some things cost less) shows.

My mother owned a pair of small round sponge tins & a muffin tin, that was it. It would have been money she didn't have/want to waste buying loads of different tins, piping bags and nozzles, rotating cake stand, various icing moulds etc yet many women i know own a huge stash of cake decorating stuff now.

I really think you need to share the recipe!!!

My mum used to make the best cakes and brownies. I hate the modern stuff with its miles of fancy, overly sweetened icing.

God, I couldn't disagree more with this thread

My grandmother made cakes that tasted fresh and tasty, and buttery and biscuity (when they were supposed to)

Butter is not the same, flour is not the same, flavourings not the same

Now I think that of tomatoes and potatoes too so it could be that my tastebuds are shot to shit as I'm over 50

But even if the best cake shops I VERY rarely think they're as good as my grandmothers in the 70s and 80s

I have tried cakes all over Britain and 1 (yes, honestly 1!) is where I buy my celebration cakes:

Violet cakes in East London
(They did Harry and Meghans christening cake for their daughter, Lilliibet)
I had their Vanilla Victoria sponge with Violet for my 50th

Was amazing

My Irish granny made the most amazing baked goods, as did all of the Irish side of my family, and my half German mum has always been an amazing baker - so I disagree because my personal experience of 80s and 90s baking was excellent.