Why Bake?

As a member of BakeSoc committee, I’m obviously a fan of baking and all things sweet. I bake because I love the taste of homemade goodies and it does relieve stress for me too (as well as sometimes being a source of stress if you cake isn’t rising quite the way you want it too…) But what about for others? What is it about baking that makes it such a popular past time? Why are we a nation obsessed with all things baking and bakeoff? I wanted to do a bit of research into why we bake, why it relieves stress and why it’s just a fab hobby!

As a starting point I thought it would be helpful to ask the some of our lovely committee as to why they bake. Here’s what a few of them said….

“It gives me something to focus on, I can switch off after a stressful day and just make something, with clear instructions, if I haven’t done anything in my day apart from bake it’s still an achievement”

“I really enjoy the creative aspect of it and learning new recipes and just becoming better. And at the end of it all there’s something nice to eat that I can share with my friends so it’s a win win.”

So the main ideas popping up here seems to be that baking is a reducer of stress and it allows for some creative fun. But is it proven that baking helps with this? Do other people feel this way? I did a quick google and it seems that our committee aren’t the only ones who recognise these benefits of baking!

Starting with baking being a great way to express creativity, according a scientist at Boston University, baking allows creative expression which is huge benefit to our well-being. There has been a lot of research on the connection between mental well-being and having a creative outlet of some form. The scientist also mentioned that baking is a brilliant way to try something new and just let loose a little bit. I think it’s also interesting to note here the differences between baking and cooking. While I love baking, my love doesn’t quite extend to cooking. Cooking some pasta with some tomato sauce is pretty much all I can be bothered to do and I know I’m not alone in this (thinking of our social sec Katie here!). In my brief research I found out that many people prefer baking, or at least enjoy it more than cooking because it’s not a task that has to be done. We cook because we need to eat dinner; it’s a pretty much just a daily chore. Baking is something you choose to do because you want to do it. Baking potentially also allows for more self-expression and creativity than cooking, for example with decoration.

Back to stress though- does baking actually help relieve stress? We know it does in the sense of allowing creativity which can support well-being but perhaps there is some more evidence out there. According to a Huffington Post article, baking is proven to reduce stress and increase happiness. This is because, according to a psychologist, “Baking requires a lot of full attention, you have to measure ingredients specifically and focus physically on different tasks”. This helps you to forget about the stressful aspects of life and encourages you to be present, you can’t bake well if you’re focusing on what needs to be done next week instead of what needs to go in the bowl in front of you! This idea that baking can help with stress, anxiety and sadness is supported by the GBBO winner of 2012 (John Whaite) who mentioned that baking helped him cope with his depression.

So, from this rather short and slightly rambly post, I think there’s some decent evidence to suggest that baking acts a perfect creative outlet as well as acting as a great reducer of stress. Here at bakesoc we reduce the stress even more by providing all the ingredients, recipes and equipment at our twice weekly baking sessions- all you need to do is turn up, have fun and go home with something delicious.

Sophie.