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There is something in the air: the smell of freshly made cakes. Home baking is the latest skill from yesteryear to enjoy a revival in the face of recession. Associated British Foods reported this week that, after years of decline, sales of home baking ingredients have taken a big leap. Sales of bun trays alone are up 35 per cent on last year.
Online baking guru Dan Lepard tells me, "Our website traffic is up a third from a few years ago. It's home cooks wanting to do more than bake their first scone." And last October the Women's Institute - that home of all things sweet and spongy - reported a 60 per cent rise in applications for its baking courses.
It's not hard to see why. As well as making sound economic sense (a home-made cake costs around a third of a shop-bought one), baking is a soothing and nurturing activity that accords well with the times. "People gulp at the price of a fancy cake in a shop today and wonder if they couldn't do better," Lepard adds. "I know several people who skip dessert at restaurants and invite everyone back to their house for a bit of homemade cake and cognac. With a little practice it's really not hard to do well."
Well, that's easy for you to say, Mr Lepard, but I'm a man who last put wooden spoon to mixing bowl some 30 years ago. I am not, however, a coward, so I decided to grasp the credit crunch cake challenge with both oven-mitted hands.
I opt for a Victoria sponge. For one thing it's supposedly simple, and for another, it will impress my mother-in-law. The Box Hill WI once disqualified her from a competition for baking a single cake and slicing it in two rather than making two and sandwiching them together.
I preheat the oven to 180C, mix 220g each of caster sugar and butter, beat in four eggs, then sift and stir in 220g of self-raising flour. At the last moment I add a teaspoon each of milk and vanilla essence (tips posted online by actress Tamsin Greig, no less). While the cakes are baking I whip up 500ml of cream and slice some fresh strawberries. Ha, no jam filling here, thank you, mum-in-law.
Within 20 minutes the cakes are done. One breaks up a bit when I turn it out onto a wire rack, instantly consigning itself to the bottom tier. But the second looks a treat: smooth and brown as Elle Macpherson's stomach. And, once slathered with cream and fruit and dusted with icing sugar, the whole thing tastes, if I say so myself, amazing. My cake, that is, not Elle McPherson's stomach. It also costs, even with organic ingredients, a fraction of a shop-bought treat. I send a photo of it to my wife, who is eating out with two friends later in the evening. She promptly informs me they're skipping pudding, and instructs me to go out and buy some cognac
For more baking ideas see www.danlepard.com.
Reader views (2)
I find most pre-made cakes far too sweet/sugary so ne of the main reasons I like to make my own is because I can easily reduce the amount of sugar or use splenda instead.
- Ross, London, England, 22/04/2009 16:29
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AND NEXT WE A WORKOUT TO LOOSE THE EXTRA INCHES PUT ON BY EATING CAKE. HEY LOTS OF FUN BAKING CAKES I THINK OF MY BOSS AS BEATING THE BUTTER MAKES A MUCH LIGHTER CAKE!
- Barabara Talbot, norwich, 22/04/2009 13:44
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