October magazine 2020

National Baking Week
“Ready, steady, BAKE!”
Have you missed hearing these words over the summer? Are you wondering where the next
‘soggy bottom’ will come from or which overbaked celebration cake could be the cornerstone of
your foundations? Or have you indulged yourself in the kitchen over lockdown, practicing some
amazing new recipes or whizzing up your nan’s tried-and-tested favourites?
• Oats are easy to bake with and
sometimes don’t even need to
go in the oven but they are also
high in fibre and good sources
of slow-release carbohydrates.
They are also higher in protein
and fat than most other grains
and high in many vitamins
and minerals. You can make
oat cookies or flapjacks, which
are easy and there are lots of
healthy alternative recipes which
use natural syrups or fruit syrups
instead of sugar
Since lockdown, baking has become one
of the nation’s best-loved home activities,
even leading in the first few weeks of
lockdown to shortages of eggs and flour
as we all reached for our pinnies and
dusted off the baking trays. According to
grocerytrader.co.uk, the total home baking
market in the UK is worth £988.4m and
has a value growth of +0.5%. Sweet cake
mixes are worth £38m and growing at
4.1% per year. So, it doesn’t seem as if
our love of baking is going away anytime
soon.
But if you haven’t been baking recently
and need an excuse to get back into the
kitchen and bake, here are three:
1. 14th – 20th October is National Baking
Week
2. The Great British Bake Off is back on
our TV screens on Channel 4 (started
on 22nd September)
3. The nights are drawing in and there’s
now plenty of flour in the shops!
National Baking Week was
started by Pyrex in 2007, to
encourage people of all
abilities to bake at home.
It was a simple idea
promoted nationally by
the company, bloggers,
recipe writers and
baking enthusiasts
alike. Although the
Pyrex official webpage
seems to have vanished
quicker than a meringue
in a microwave, others have
picked up the ‘baton’ (get it?)
and run with the idea.
Why bake?
Baking is fun, creative and you end up
with something edible (hopefully) at the
end of it.
Baking also stimulates the senses such
as touch, taste and smell, making it great
for children who like sensory activities.
Many people also consider cooking
as a meditative practice saying it
helps them relax and unwind.
And baking your food can
also be a great way to be
more mindful and careful
about what you eat,
as well as being a
cost-effective way to
feed the family or
the children in your
setting.
The internet is full of recipes and ideas
of things that are suitable for younger
children to make, from cupcakes to easy
pizzas, chocolate brownies to volcano
cakes, so there really is no excuse for
not taking some time to inspire children
with baking. And with National Baking
Week running almost straight on from
Malnutrition Awareness Week, we thought
it would be a good time to highlight some
healthy tips and tricks to make your baking
not only fun, but also extra nutritious too.
• Hide some of your 5-a-day fruit and
veggies into your bakes. You can
add carrots, onions and avocados
to savoury cheese muffins which are
perfect for lunch boxes, or blueberries
and raspberries also go well in
muffins instead of chocolate chips;
spinach is full of iron and nutrients
and is great to add because it can
colour the food green, to add to the
fun; and of course everyone loves
banana bread
• Use wholemeal flour instead of white
flour to increase your fibre intake or
make a half-and-half mixture
• Use unsaturated fat in your baking
to reduce your saturated fat intake.
There are several brands that are
suitable but make sure they say
they can be used in baking as the
ingredients, emulsifiers and fat
content of some spreads make them
unsuitable for some baking tasks
• Instead of using thick butter icing
for cake toppings, switch to drizzling
some glacé (water-based) icing
instead. You can still use food
colouring to make it interesting, but it
is much lower in fat than butter icing
• Experiment with substituting healthy
options for common ingredients. Try
using apple puree or Greek yoghurt
instead of oil in recipes to reduce the
fat but keep the moisture content;
use bananas, honey, maple syrup,
agave, coconut sugar or dates as an
alternative to sugar, depending on
the recipe – but don’t go overboard –
they’re still sugars
• Be careful
of your portion
sizes – try to reduce
the size of muffins or biscuits
you bake by 10-20% to reduce calorie
intake, but make sure you don’t then
fall into the trap of simply eating
more!
• Sometimes we all love a treat, so
don’t deny yourself everything
you love or you will end up feeling
miserable. The trick to sticking to a
healthy diet is to make the everyday
things you eat healthy and nutritious,
and allow yourself the occasional treat
– just make sure your ‘occasional’ is
just that!
You can find some healthy recipes on the
BBC Food website here which are perfect
for baking with pre-schoolers,
and there are both sweet
and savoury options
to keep everyone
happy. So what are
you waiting for?
Ready, steady,
BAKE!
Facts about this year’s Great
British Bake Off.
• The show returned to Channel 4 on 22
September, a month later than usual,
after filming was delayed because of
the coronavirus pandemic.
• The show was filmed in a new venue
at Down Hall Hotel in Essex where
the production team, bakers, hosts,
judges, hotel staff and cleaners lived
together for 6 weeks instead of filming
over 3 months at weekends.
• There are 12 contestants - one fewer
than the baker’s dozen from last year.
• Matt Lucas replaces Sandi Toksvig as
host, joined by Noel Fielding.
• Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith judge
the best bakes in the famous white
tent.
• The winner is still a secret!
22 October 2020 | parenta.com
parenta.com | October 2020 23