Seriously, what is with this baking? Since the start of lockdown we have baked:
1) Chocolate cake- granted it was a box mix, but I'm putting this down to it having been the first day of lockdown. We lacked then the skill and expertise of seasoned lockdown veterans.
2) Chocolate brownies
3) Cheese and bacon muffins
4) Biscuits
5) Bread rolls
6) Biscuits again (it's a really good recipe)
7) Lemon meringue pie
8) Apple crumble
9) Cupcakes
10) Bread
I am far from the world's most prolific baker and this represents an increase of approximately 600% on our usual annual baking activity. I also don't particularly enjoy baking so I'm not sure how we progressed from almost no baking to the point of almost daily baking. In the spirit of full disclosure, I will admit that the first chocolate cake was baked as a reward (bribe?) for my children for cleaning the house while my husband and I were at work. It seemed a good deal at the time: the house was relatively tidy when I got home from work and the kids hadn't killed each other. Bad precedent to set: you see where it got me.
Lockdown days can be long and baking is a convenient 'activity' to do with the kids. They enjoy it, I get to be smug at being a good mom, it can take up anywhere between half an hour and two hours depending on whether you can con the kids into helping clean up afterwards too and usually you are left with something tasty to eat at the end of it (with the proviso that it may have green or orange icing). Which is a whole other activity in itself. Seems like a win-win situation all around until you step onto the scale. My sister has a two year old and a five year old. She came up with the phrase 'fattening the curve'.
I think we aren't the only people who are spending inordinate amounts of time baking during this period. I suspect this because a) the shops are low on flour- seriously, Pick 'n' Pay had two 500g bags of self-raising flour left in the baking aisle a couple days ago- and b) every second Instagram post I see seems to be of banana bread or some other delicious (inevitably healthier than my) baked goody. Either we are a lockdown society of bribery and excess calories, or there is some deeper reason that we have started baking more. Across a wide range of cultures, baking is an activity associated with a coming together. Traditionally, baking symbolises nurturing and care. Perhaps now, as a society confined by strict isolation laws, this is what we crave. In baking with my children I'm looking for more than just chocolate brownies (although those are damn good): I am seeking comfort, I am seeking connection and I am seeking the simplicity of tangible care.
*Recipes available on request. For a small fee. Like a bottle of hand sanitiser Or wine.
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