Out of the closet

I've just watched the first episode of the new, fourth series of The Great British Bake Off. As a rule I don't watch reality TV - not because I'm taking the moral high ground but just because I find it awfully boring - so this is pretty much the only reality show I watch. I didn't even tune in for the first series, as I assumed it was more of the same - catty judges, annoying presenters, cringe-inducing contestants, bitter competition and a set-up

Chocolate fudge cake

designed to constantly ratchet up the tension level. Then one day while channel-hopping, I stopped on what turned out to be episode 2 of the second series. Before I knew it, I was hooked. The presenters, Mel and Sue, are both lovely and also funny (without being annoying and too try-hard). The judges are the wonderful Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood (while Mr Hollywood is ostensibly the 'baddie', he's actually quite fair). All in all, it's a big ol' baking love-in. The contestants love baking, everyone involved loves cake and while things can get a bit tense, the general feeling is one of friendly competition rather than a fight to win at all costs. (If you ask me, I think it's all the cake being eaten - the sweet stuff neutralises any potential nastiness).

The popularity of the show over the last few years has grown immeasurably and has coincided with a rise in the popularity of baking. The fact that more people are baking at home may have something to do with the recession - less money, more time perhaps, though it's also true that when life gets tough, we often seek comfort in the familiar and certain tastes can evoke memories of happier times. Whether or not it caused the renewed interest in baking, The Great British Bake Off has most definitely sustained it and caused it to spread like wild fire. As recently as two years ago, I had to source most of my cake decorating supplies online from the UK. Now, there are new shops popping up all over Dublin and even my local Home Store + More has carved out a substantial section of the shop especially for baking and decorating apparatus. 

Now don't get me wrong, I think it's brilliant that more people are willing to give baking a go (more lovely cake to go round), but I'm finding it a bit strange that baking is suddenly 'cool'. As someone who has always baked, I can tell you that there was nothing cool about admitting to your teenage peers that you had spent the weekend baking buns and making a really yummy Scandinavian Apple Charlotte for dessert. Back in the late 80s, it didn't have quite the same cachet as say, going to a disco / sneaking into a bar / hanging out with boys. So I maintained a closeted baking existence, revealing my strange predilection for cake-making only to close friends and family. Things didn't improve terribly in the early 90s, but I didn't notice as I was too busy with college, living abroad and generally having a good time, to do much baking anyway. By the early noughties, I was baking regularly once more and even, occasionally, outing myself to work colleagues - some left-over chocolate and peanut-butter cookies here, a few slices of gingerbread there. Finally, circa 2005, I made and brought in a whole chocolate fudge cake to work, to celebrate the birthday of a colleague who is also a very good friend of mine. There was no escaping it, I was now firmly out of the closet (or should that be out of the baking press?) and I have never looked back. So I'm out and I'm proud - my name is Clare and I love baking.