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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Have people just got a lot better at baking?

156 replies

Sunflowering · 05/07/2023 15:22

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.

OP posts:
strawberrywhisk · 06/07/2023 17:43

I've never tasted anything better than my Grandma's baking. She always made everything herself. I miss her Dundee cakes, fairy cakes, bakewells, egg custards, apple pies, steak and kidney pies etc. I still use her mixing bowl, it's got to be near 70 years old now.

bonfirebash · 06/07/2023 19:45

@Oblahbla yes! They're so popular whenever I make them

StrawberrySquash · 06/07/2023 19:53

It's definitely got more interesting and more varied. And you get things that actually taste of chocolate. But there is also quite a lot of underwhelming cake out there.

Hadjab · 06/07/2023 20:17

Definitely better equipment is a reason. I baked a cake for my daughter’s 1st birthday - it was shit, as the gas oven didn’t bake very well. Got an electric oven, baked a cake for my second daughter’s 1st birthday- she’s just turned 16 - and it was perfect. I now bake and sell celebration cakes as a ‘side hustle’.

louderthan · 06/07/2023 21:24

Pretty sure my mum used to pay our next door neighbour to make my birthday cakes. They were always themed according to what I was fixated on that year. Particular triumphs were Postman Pat's van, a nest of dinosaur eggs and a fire engine with a liquorice whip hose.

Thingamebobwotsit · 07/07/2023 16:53

KimberleyClark · 05/07/2023 18:13

Wouldn’t it be better if she iced the cake?

(sorry, couldn’t resist!)

😆 thanks for the chuckle!

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