Bake Off craze gets more people into the kitchen

Icing bags, baking tins and egg timers are being brought out from the back of the cupboard ready for more show-stopper challenges.

The BBC series, starring bakers and judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood is now in its fifth year and has taken the nation by storm.

The first episode of the new BBC One series attracted 7.9 million viewers on August 6, its highest figures ever.

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The show involves amateur bakers making three items like cakes and bread each week for the judges.

Since it began five years ago most major supermarkets have reported a huge increase in the amount of baking products they are selling.

Waitrose has reported a 60 per cent rise in sales of dried yeast, Tesco a 40 per cent increase in rye flour and a 30 per cent rise in flaked almonds at Sainsbury’s.

Alice Traish, store operations area manager for Aldi Bicester, said Bake Off mania has become like Pancake Day and Christmas, with customers flocking to the store during the series. She said: “The show has inspired a whole new generation of younger bakers, looking to get in on the craze.”

According to research conducted by shopping insight consultancy IRI, the Launton Road store is reporting a 67 per cent rise in the amount of baking products sold since the show began in 2009.

And the amount of cupcake shops and bespoke cake-making companies popping up in recent years can’t have escaped anyone’s notice.

Baker Gary Johnson, manager of La Patisserie in Kidlington, said “We have a lot of customers but they seem to stick to their favourites.

“We have experimented with what we produce over the years, but it’s always the old favourites that they come back for. We just keep producing what we do best.”

He added: “The TV show seems to have a lot of interest, and it’s good that there is that interest.”

• Christine Wallace

Christine Wallace, who reached the quarter-final in series four, will co-organise the Didcot Christmas Bake Off on November 15 and 16. The winner will win a day at Raymond Blanc’s cookery school.

The Didcot resident, 68, said the format was still very popular around the country and she has been asked to judge competitions since her stint on the show ended.

She added: “I thought the attention would have died down a bit but it doesn’t seem to have done.

“I have been judging a lot of baking competitions and I think the show has impacted on the whole country, not just Oxfordshire.”

She said the show had reinforced the idea that baking was a skill and it had made people more aware of the craft of baking.

She said: “More than any other type of cooking, baking is a science.

“You have to have the exact ingredients, you can’t just chuck it all in like it’s a stew or a casserole.

“It is nice to think that something I have done is making people try new things.”

She said: “When I do events I always get parents coming up to me and saying ‘my children love the show’.

“And I think that is great because they start baking and then go back into the kitchen and see what else there is.

“Maybe the next generation will see spend more time in the kitchen.”

• Geoff Coleman

Geoff Coleman, who was born and raised in Oxfordshire, has been working at the Cornfield Bakery in Wheatley since before he left school at 16.

The 54-year-old said he had never watched the programme, but had noticed its effect on his customers.

The father-of-six said: “I have not really noticed any extreme changes, but there have been subtle trends.

“But a lot of people are talking about it and more people have been asking for recipes.”

He said he had seen a bigger enthusiasm amongst his customer base to find out where products come from and more people were signing up to the shop’s bread-making courses.

“We are selling a lot more of our sour bread and artisan loaves because I think people are more informed than they have been,” he said.

• Graham Nash

Graham Nash, owner of Nash’s Bakery that has six shops in Oxfordshire and was founded in 1930, said he was pleased baking was back in the spotlight.

The 71-year-old said: “It is good that people are talking about baking again and that people are realising that it is still a very important part of life.

“It has made people more aware of what we do.

“They realise a lot of skills go into it and that it is not as simple as it seems.

“But one of the good things is that it has made people get more into home baking, and then they appreciate what we do more.”

He said he had watched the show, but wasn’t addicted to it.

Mr Nash was a former national president of the Association of Master Bakers, now called the Craft Bakers Association, and is still a chairman of the trustees.

His father founded the firm in 1930, and Mr Nash has worked in the business for 48-years.

He said: “And I still love it.”

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