Giving up

I have a Victoria sponge cake in the oven just now, but I only make them now and then, when anybody else will be here to help eat them.
Dh and I would be like the sides of a house if I made them regularly, just for us.
The only other one I ever make is a lemon drizzle, and chocolate fairy cakes for the Gdcs’ birthday parties.

Whenever I do make any cake, I give thanks for my trusty old Kenwood Chef - wedding present in 1974! - which does all the hard work!

It's frustrating, seeing what needs to be done that we could do in a day but are unable to accomplish even in a week.

I think this thread is not just about baking ( I have given up altogether) but more about regretting what we can no longer do or not enjoying doing what we used to do.
As the O P says, life shrinks as we age.
I remember full days, racing round, now life is slow, nothing really to strive for and Friday bin day is about every 4 days and don’t even mention Christmas which seems like 4 months ago.

Well, Death by Cake is a popular theme for fiction!

I would like to see the statistics that show how many people were ill or died after eating anything from a WI stall

Utter nonsense. Death by Lemon Drizzle.

loopyloo

I agree with you there!
Also I find if I make cakes I end up eating them and as a type 2 that's not what should be doing.
I do try to concentrate on what I can still do. Watch interesting tv, contact friends, read, do jigsaws, do half an hour in the garden.
You are not alone.

Exactly same here.

I still love baking and experimenting with gluten free recipes. I could write a book with all my notes and photos but now there’s nobody to eat it all and my freezer is often groaning.
On Saturday I took out some Snickerdoodle cookies because DD and DSiL were coming for coffee. I didn’t spot the message saying they’d have to arrive half an hour earlier so the damn things were still frozen and I ended up opening a packet of supermarket biscuits. 😫

Occasionally I'll make the lockdown banana cake when there are a couple or three ripe bananas hanging around which no-one will eat.
Last week's was full of currants, chopped prunes and dried cranberries. I tell myself it's good for us (probably not).

I’ve recently started cake making again, so gone the other way.
I used to make lots of cakes especially for kids birthdays when they were small. christmas cakes, easter cakes etc and also for school sales.

Then I didn’t bother for many years but recently I have started again, trying to get my husband to help with just one hand. We enjoy doing it together. We do banana cake, coffee and walnut, fruit cake, lemon drizzle etc.

Crossed post Sarnia

What a shame Margs. Is that common now across all charities and churches for example? I seem to remember a thread from way back on Gransnet complaining about something similar and I can't remember what the answer was.

Requirement for an H and H certificate would put off many people donating homemade cakes etc.

I hope Grandmattie reads this thread and advises what her church requires from her as she is the cake, biscuit, preserves and chutneys queen.

Margs

A close friend, about my age, liked to bake for various local charities and fund-raising generally, but then one particular charity clamped down on her, ungraciously, citing Health & Hygiene and telling her she would need a licence from the local authority.

It nearly knocked the stuffing out of her.

I think the Health & Hygiene thing was an excuse because her cakes weren't 'proffessional' enough for their snobbish requirements.

She never bakes now - not even for herself.

WI's have had this too. WI markets have mostly gone because of the red tape. Baking at home in unregulated kitchens now needs an environmental health certificate but I would hazard a guess those kitchens would be a sight cleaner than some commercial premises. Reusing jam jars is forbidden and someone involved with the sale of home-made food now has to have passed a Food & Hygiene certificate and have this displayed on the stall.
The only thing that makes any sense is listing all ingredients in the bake so people with allergies and intolerances can make safe choices.

I would like to see the statistics that show how many people were ill or died after eating anything from a WI stall.

I don't bake for myself, but I bake once a week with my dear granddaughter. This week it's going to be a cherry bakewell cake. It's good fun baking with her, but less fun cleaning the kitchen afterwards!

Margs

A close friend, about my age, liked to bake for various local charities and fund-raising generally, but then one particular charity clamped down on her, ungraciously, citing Health & Hygiene and telling her she would need a licence from the local authority.

It nearly knocked the stuffing out of her.

I think the Health & Hygiene thing was an excuse because her cakes weren't 'proffessional' enough for their snobbish requirements.

She never bakes now - not even for herself.

That is horrid. The poor woman, after giving up so much of her time and spending so much money on ingredients. Some people never think about how much a person can be hurt by things like this.

A close friend, about my age, liked to bake for various local charities and fund-raising generally, but then one particular charity clamped down on her, ungraciously, citing Health & Hygiene and telling her she would need a licence from the local authority.

It nearly knocked the stuffing out of her.

I think the Health & Hygiene thing was an excuse because her cakes weren't 'proffessional' enough for their snobbish requirements.

She never bakes now - not even for herself.

Cossy

*Life is like the chapters of a book, when one is finished you move to the next, never knowing what it may bring.*

I love this!

I think I've reached the epilogue!

I bake birthday cakes for birthdays for the family but is getting much harder, I used to enjoy it but is a chore now yet they derive such joy from it.

I have definitely lost my cake-making mojo, and only in my mid 60s, I don't even feel I can blame my age.

Thinking back, I think it started when I had to have two new ovens within little more than a year, and had a lot of trouble finding the right temperature setting in them. Around the same time, I bought my airfryer, so rarely needed to use the oven anyway, and became very reluctant to do so.

As a result, I have lost the ability to quickly rustle up a cake on the spur of the moment, and on the odd occasion where I do make one now (usually requests from children), the results are nowhere as good as they used to be. And I find it exhausting too!

The youngest dgc still wants to bake with me sometimes, but fortunately he seems to prefer making biscuits anyway, as he enjoys using the biscuit cutters. As long as I am careful not to let them burn (either the biscuits or dgs ), its a lot harder to go wrong with biscuits.

I am trying to have a busy day followed by a quieter one these days and then I look forward to the quieter one.
OP are you able to get out and about?

I’ve gone the opposite way re cakes. I started making tea bread and banana bread and always have a slice to start my day ( I’m a night owl and my day begins at 12). I use pre measured cups and plastic containers so I just throw the ingredients in a bowl quickly ( I do add healthy stuff like flax and blueberries, use organic wholemeal flour and reduce the sugar) I obviously don’t make proper cakes, the sort that my daughter and DIL make. However I only do it because I’m very much stuck at home because of my bad knee and sadly my cake and coffee at twelve is the highlight of my day. If it wasn’t for that I’d probably just carry on sleeping.

I love the chapters of a book analogy too.

Life is like the chapters of a book, when one is finished you move to the next, never knowing what it may bring.

I love this!

HelterSkelter1

Well the increasing cost of ingredients and oven electricity is a discouragement as well.
I have never been a cake maker, but so appreciate a homemade cake. If you lived near me I would give you a regular order for date and walnut, coffee and walnut, banana and walnut. Lemon drizzle. Anything with raspbereies and almonds. Iced cakes like birthday and wedding I am not keen on. I don't like hard icing.

What has actually put you off? No requests? Can't be bothered? Fussy recipients? Too tired?

I bought a banana and walnut cake at a church coffee morning and it was such a treat. It lasted me a week for teatimes with a cup of tea. So much nicer than a shop bought one. Maybe I will encourage myself.

I love a homemade cake (not my own 🤣😂🤣)

2SpinDriftCoastal ..... I am eating the cake from a bowl with fruit and yoghurt on top ... it is yummy!

I've gifted my Kenwood to a younger family member. I culled my cake tins and all the number candles that were lurking around. (Probably left over from my children's birthday cakes who are both knocking on the door of 50 now).

Life is like the chapters of a book, when one is finished you move to the next, never knowing what it may bring.

It's easy to dip into those feelings of loss, or regret, as we get older. And probably quite normal. My retirement trip to Australia and New Zealand never materialised due to Covid, ill-health and other things that got in the way, and I still pine for it a bit. But I have travelled much of the world and those experiences are all tucked away in my treasure chest of life.