insideKENT Magazine Issue 54 - September 2016 | Page 47

FOOD+DRINK BAKING FEVER Baking – we just can’t seem to get enough of it these days, and TV programmes such as The Great British Bake Off are feeding our addiction to all things cake, bread and pastry. Although it may feel like the baking craze is a reasonably new phenomenon, it has actually been around forever. Or very close to it. It was in ancient Egypt that baking first began to take shape – in around 2600BC. Although some of the bread was certainly used for eating, much of it was made solely as a sacrifice to the gods, to ensure a good harvest for the coming year. In order to keep the gods happy, sweet cakes and treats were baked as well as bread. It was thought that something sweet would calm any wrathful god’s temper, and stop any hardship from befalling the people. As time went on, and times got harder, the sweet bakes were considered frivolous and decadent – which is possibly why the Romans loved them so much. By 300BC, it was only the rich and powerful who ate sweet baked goods, and those who made such delicacies were revered. The first pastry chefs emerged at this time who were known as the pastillarium, and they were in severe competition with one another. Whoever could make the biggest, most elaborate, and most delicious cakes was the best of the best, and was handsomely rewarded by Roman noblemen, and the emperor himself. As with everything the Romans did, the art of baking soon spread throughout Europe and into Asia, and the idea that bread was the ideal sustenance and anything sweet or ‘pretty’ was for the upper classes continued. In the Middle Ages in Britain it changed even more; if you had money your bread would be made with the more expensive wheat bread. If you were poor, you had rye bread. It was much tougher to eat, and it certainly didn’t taste as good. Pies were a big feature of the kitchen by this time, but it was a rare thing for a poor commoner to have enough meat to fill theirs. Being able to make good pastry, therefore, was essential. Bakeries sprang up (it was far too expensive to have a fire working at home simply to cook on) across the country. These bakers would use a cart to take their goods from door to door, selling as they went. The 15th century saw some major changes in the baking world. With the explosion of spices and different fruits and ingredients that were 47 being brought into the country by merchants, it became possible for the poorer people in society to buy much better tasting bread, and even to indulge in treats made with cream, butter, and fruit. Over the next one hundred years, pioneers in baking began to create recipes that we still use today, and if we could go back in time and see what they were making, we would certainly recognise the pies, buns, loaves and cakes that they created. Since then there has been no going back. We are officially addicted to baked goods. And as for baking competitions, we’re not so much different to the Romans in that regard – after all, when it comes to The Great British Bake Off, whoever can make the biggest, most elaborate and most delicious creations is handsomely rewarded.