Hannah Betts
Liberal parents are
inducting children
into the cult of drink
Page 23Return of the eagle
Why the birds are
ruffling feathers on
the Isle of Wight
Page 22It's not cricket
Radio 1's Mollie King
on her romance
with Stuart Broad
STYLE Page 24
FEATURES
W
hile I’ve always loved
cooking food in various
forms, baking never quite
did it for me. Too precise; too
scientific; too fiddly; too twee. Or so I
thought. I’m a bread nut and, with a
bank balance feeling the bite due to
pricey sourdough loaves that don’t
last as long as they should, I decided
to give home baking a go. Breads, of
startlingly variable quality, are now
flying out of my oven weekly.
I’m not alone. Next week, The
Great British Bake Off returns to our
screens. The 10th iteration will
feature the youngest-ever line-up,
with an average age of 31.
There will be a pair of 20-year-olds
(half the contestants are in their 20s),
with only two aged 40 or older.
According to head judge Paul
Hollywood, baking is now seen as a
“cool” pastime. “If you’re a girl, a
young lad, if you can bake, you’ll get
friends – always,” Hollywood mused.
Pop into any new-breed bakery –
the ones selling those £4 sourdoughs- and there’s every chance your
bread will be made by millennials.
Browsing through Instagram?
Twentysomethings post countless
images of colourful cupcakes and
glazed doughnuts. Bake Off itself is
one of very few shows to reach
near-ubiquity among my peers
(roughly aged 25-30), up there with
Fleabag and Game of Thrones.
What is it about baking that has
captured the imagination of millenni-
als and Generation Z (those born from
the mid-Nineties to the early-Nough-
ties)? Aren’t we all smartphone-ad-
dicted narcissists with little time for
anything creative or productive?
Don’t we shun sugar, carbs and fat –
essential elements of baking – for
As ‘The Great British Bake Off ’ unveils its youngest group of contestants,
Tomé Morrissy-Swan explains the lure of the kitchen for his generation
Confessions of a
millennial baker
Takes the cake:
Tomé found joy in
baking – and now
knows other young
people love it tooPA; JAY WILLIAMSMillennial kitchen
The must-haves
Piping bag £32
Borough Kitchen
Want to immortalise your favourite
lyrics and woke slogans on your
cakes? Order one of these 32-piece
piping kits.
boroughkitchen.comEarthenware
£70 for six
Cox and Cox
However beautiful your bake, it is
nothing without a rustically stylish
plate to serve it on. Try these in
matte millennial pink or grey.
coxandcox.co.ukBrass cutlery
£22 for a five piece setting
Anthropologie
Splash out on one set of beautiful
cutlery to use in your Instagram
shots.
anthropologie.comMadeleines
£20, Sugden and Daughters
A brushed iron effect is a must with
your bakeware to ensure the most
atmospheric shots. These vintage
madeleine trays are perfect.
http://www.sugdenand
daughters.co.ukForaging
From £13.75
Nutleys Kitchen
Gardens
To bake like a
millennial, you’ll
need to be prepared
to pop on a pair of
Birkenstocks and go
foraging for botanicals
and berries. These wicker
trugs are as attractive as they are
functional.
nutleyskitchengardens.co.ukEdible flowers
Petersham Nurseries Edible
Flowers Gift Box £18
It contains a collection of edible
flower seeds, including borage,
cowslip, heartsease, pot marigold,
nasturtium and cornflower perfect
for cake decorating.
petershamnurseries.comStar baker
Petersham Nurseries Apron Ochre
£65 It is a popular bib apron that
comes in a soft ochre shade, with
the logo embossed on the front. It
is 100 per cent cotton and made in
England. Practical and hard-
wearing, it has a large double
pocket and smaller front pocket,
with black ties and brass eyelets.
The adjustable neck strap is
approximately 68cm long and each
waist tie 84cm long.
petershamnurseries.comLiberal parents are
inducting children
into the cult ofdrink
Page 23Mollie King
mance
art Broad
“clean” ingredients like kale and chia
seeds? Last year, Manon Lagrève, a
French-born Londoner, reached the
GBBO quarter-finals at age 26. She cites
several reasons for the baking boom.
“We’re becoming quite visual, with
social media. Baking is a creative thing
that’s easy to make look nice,” she says.
As opposed to regular cooking,
Lagrève describes baking as “much
more aesthetic. I can make it look
pretty”. For millennial bakers,
aesthetic is everything. If the aim is
Instagram likes, then how youdecorate, plate and style your bakes is
crucial. Millennials may not be able to
buy a house but they’ll happily spend
what once would have constituted the
down payment on a flat on beautiful
matte earthenware, brushed brass
cutlery and stonewashed linens.
A deep dive into millennial bakers
on Instagram reveals they tend to fall
into one of two camps. There’s the
earthy bakers who opt for a natural
look, with frostings and ceramics in a
muted colour palette, and bakes
packed with botanicals and natural
dyes. Then there’s the rather more
lairy crowd, who top their cakes with
brightly coloured feminist slogans and
Beyoncé lyrics, covering them in
multicoloured confetti. And there’s the
issue of price. A great piece of fish or
beef will always taste nice, but is
costly. Baking ingredients (essentially
flour, water, eggs and sugar) are
generally cheap and accessible.
But aside from the aesthetic, there’s
something altogether more visceral
and sentimental going on, too. The
pace of modern life can be overwhelm-
ing; thanks to the internet, we rarely
switch off. Mixing flour and water, even
for a few minutes, perhaps with some
kneading, can be incredibly meditative
and mindful. “You can’t rush it, you
can’t make bread rise on its own. It’s an
appreciation of time,” Lagrève offers.
Which brings baking its therapeutic
quality. “The reason I chose to study
baking was purely mental health
orientated,” says PR director and Le
Cordon Bleu alumni Niki Downs, 36,
who has baked since childhood.
“Baking is so mathematical: A+B =
cake. It’s time away from screens, and
you know that when you add the
ingredients, something tangible is
produced. It’s something you canYoung guns: the
Bake Off 2019
contestantsyour bakeware
atmospheric sh
madeleine trays
http://www.sugdenan
daughters.co.ukForaging
From
N
G
T
m
n
to
Birke
foragin
and berri
trugs are as at
functional.
nutleyskitchenshare, something that offers happiness
to others; a little escape from reality.
Baking was quite literally therapy for
me and I think that’s why a lot of
younger people enjoy it.”
Luisa Ruocco, 28, explains. “When
I’m alone in my kitchen, I’m really ‘in
the zone’. Focusing on the steps of the
recipe and not missing out any
ingredients is great for when you need
to get out of your own head.”
But it’s the joy baked goods bring to
others that Ruocco is particularly fond
of. “When you go to a dinner party,
sure, you could pick up a bottle of
wine. But there’s a different kind of
excitement on people’s faces
when you turn up with a
cake you have made. It
shows you really took
the effort to do some-
thing special and
brighten someone’s day.”
However, for Reni
Adebayo, 29, it’s the blend
of science and art that gives
baking a unique quality.
Adebayo bakes once or twice a
week, often for friends’ parties. “I
enjoy adapting recipes, experimenting
with different flavours and variations,
adding a little something, doing a
vegan version or converting a loaf
recipe to a cupcake.”
Deliciously Ella first brought
plant-based baking into the main-
stream with her viral sweet potato
brownies, but these days vegan,
gluten-free and dairy-free alternatives
are another key feature of the millen-
nial kitchen, with endless alternatives
to milk, butter, eggs and wheat now
readily available.
Baking is a form of alchemy. With
the simplest of ingredients, you can
turn something inedible into a treat.
But in an age of instant gratification,
the requisite determination and
endurance, with a deferred reward, is
a strong appeal.
Some viewers are disconcerted by
Bake Off featuring such a young cast,
seeing it as a cynical ploy to win
over young viewers.
There’s no denying
the older competi-
tors are often the most
entertaining. That may be so,
but it’s also a clear sign that
home baking, in all its forms,
is no longer encountered only
at your grandmother’s house.
Young people are getting
involved – and that can only be a
good thing.The Great British Bake Off begins
next Thursday on Channel 4The Daily Telegraph Friday 23 August 2019 *** 21
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