Baking is a popular subject for food
bloggers. Photograph: GettyReports out today reveal home baking is enjoying something of a revival, with sales of flour, dried fruit and cake decorations up 25% and the market expected to grow to £550 million by 2011, writes Bonnie Malkin.
Baking is also proving popular online with a growing community of bloggers posting recipes, advice and proud photos of their creations (as well as the odd flop).
There are beginners, like Ben Bakes a Cake, those that can only be described as experimental bakers, such as Cookie Madness (Guinness Stout Brownies anyone?) and, of course, the more highly refined.
The Pastry Department, a blog by a former Fat Duck pastry chef, fits firmly into the latter category with heavyweight recipes such as caramel macadamia tarts and late summer coffee cake.
Bakingsheet falls somewhere in the middle, and is worth a mention for its super-cute cake names (One Bowl Buttermilk Chocolate Cupcakes, Lime Chiffon Cake, Doubletree Chocolate Chip Cookies, to name but a few) that could not fail to impress even the most cynical visiting mother-in-law.
Then there are the more savoury bloggers, such as the Foppish Baker and his endearingly-named Ugly Breakfast Rolls.
One word of warning, most of these posts are likely to induce strong urges to eat cake - homemade or otherwise.
