Baking may be regarded as a science, but it the chemistry between the ingredients and the cook that gives desserts life. Baking is done out of love, to share with family and friends…to see them smile.
Anna Olson
There is something symbolic about cakes – they are made up of rich ingredients, made with love, beautifully designed and even better for us to taste and devour. It may be a naughty treat but we love cakes and desserts for social occasions. It is a fabulous time for us to share these fabulous concoctions with our dearest in celebration, or purely as an indulgent comfort. You may even want to eat your cake all by yourself…and that is perfectly alright too.
The market for cakes is booming and there are lots of innovations in the marketplace too. According to Mintel market research, the market for cakes is valued at £2.23 billion in the UK and it is predicted that over the next five years sales are forecast to increase by 6% to reach £2.36 billion in 2022. The reports states that 52% of people have bought a celebration/party cake in the last 3 months to December 2017. Cakes are also considered an essential part of special occasions. And apparently, most women think that high-quality ingredients and visual appeal are the most important factors. In terms of tastes and lifestyle choices, you can now buy all types of cakes – vegan, eggless, gluten-free and the good old-fashioned ones. There are many obvious reasons that we love cake, and the high street and pop-up stalls are reflecting our love of these old and new favourites.
Baking has so much excitement to it. It brings back childhood memories for me. I remember helping my mother and her sisters with their baking. They would give us some of the easy tasks to make us feel part of the process, such as cracking each egg individually to check if they were okay. Later on, baking cakes for Christmas was one of the most cherished memories I have with spending time with my mother. We were also told stories of older generations who baked with makeshift ovens made out of old steel drums, clay ovens or brick ovens.
Cakes are healthy too, you just eat a small slice.
– Mary Berry
Some of us may have had more baking experience in our ‘Home Economics’ classes in secondary school. I didn’t do this subject for O’Levels examinations in school but I still had a passion for baking and cooking at home, which I continued to develop more in my twenties. I have been taking photos of my earlier cakes before the advent of digital camera and smartphones. Instagram, blogs and other social media are one of the great contributing factors for the success of a new younger generation baking, and even taking up baking up as careers. Baking have also been helped with popular television shows such as the Great British Bake-Off (GBBO). I must admit I have never looked at a show but I have bought a book by winner Edd Kimber for inspiration a few years ago.
When baking, you really have to follow those tried and tested recipes. I still like referring to old favourites that my mother and friends have shared with me. The Naparima Girls School cookbook was an old favourite for Caribbean recipes. I have also used the Internet to search for a particular type of cake – such as walnut and carrot cake, and for this chocolate Buntz cake I recently made. British chefs Delia Smith and Nigella Lawson are guaranteed to give you ideas, as well as the technical know-how on creating your perfect cakes. I have been speaking to a few young bakers – and they say that they tweak and innovate to make recipes their own. This is a sign of a confident baker!
There lots of competition in the market and so having your own style and brand is important. The recipe and the technical procedures for making these gorgeous creations are really important in business – they are your trade secrets. It is also recommend that you protect your brand by having your own trade mark and logos. There is the well-known case of the Jaffa Cake, which anyone can make as the initial producers McVitie’s did not trademark the name “Jaffa Cakes”, and so other biscuit manufacturers and supermarkets have made similar products under the same name.
Your recipes can also be your signature style. At the recent wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, baker Claire Ptak had her trade mark buttercream icing which makes you want to try her unique cakes. It is good to see that she had books you can buy and also the wedding cake recipe is listed on Hello’s website. I might just have to try this lemon and elderflower cake!
Cakes are also great for raising funds and other charitable causes. We had cake sales in primary and secondary school. Many schools have cakes at their fairs and a lot of organisations also hold fundraising days for raising funds for particular great causes. I am always happy to make cakes for charity and street parties. The array of cakes at these occasions make our eyes glow and our taste buds explode! Apple Day is a local community day held at the Vestry Museum in Autumn, when there are so many innovative and varied ways to create cakes out of apples.
Cakes are also a metaphor for knowledge management. I remember discussing the recipe for cake at a Knowledge Management forum held by David Gurteen or my ex-employers – the point being is that the recipe is shared but the know-how and the practical steps, sourcing ingredients and techniques are added-value insights and skills. This type of tacit knowledge we may want to share verbally with our friends, and may even show them baking tricks. Still, we may ‘follow the recipe to the T’, but our cakes may look differently for reasons unknown. There may be other factors contributing to changes such as the oven, temperature, process, ingredients, tools etc. These challenges certainly make baking interesting.
A cake is a very good test of an oven: if it browns too much on one side and not on the other, it’s not your fault you need to have your oven checked.
Delia Smith
Cakes are great for selling in pop-up shops, market stalls and in artisan bakeries, whether on the high street or made-to-order. Cupcakes have had a revival over the last decade and had inspired a new generation of bakers, entrepreneurs and cake aficionados. Seriously…who doesn’t like cake?
Having cakes as a business certainly changes things for me I don’t now sit at home doing a cake for the fun of it anymore. But it’s an extremely happy and pleasureable business to run because people are generally buying cakes for celebrations.
Jane Asher
There are some tremendous bakers out there and they are far better than I can possibly be. I still bake regularly at home when I have guests, or for a particular occasion. There are some fabulous gadgets and kitchen aids on the market and it has always been one of my ambitions to own a fancy kitchen aid. Maybe one day I will own one of those bad-boys!
Cakes are so visually appealing. I sometimes feel bad sharing photos of food on social media, but then I see other inspirational cakes by foodies. I too get inspired and want to try new recipes or flavours. The best thing about baking is that there is an interesting reward at the end for your efforts. Enjoying the occasional cake with family and friends are some of the best moments in life.
Let’s face it, a nice creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people;
it does for me. Audrey Hepburn
Connecting the Dots 