Not long ago, if you told your parents you wanted to be a successful baker, you’d have to head off to catering school, work in a restaurant or open your own cake shop to warrant some success. However, thanks to social media, baking now has a cool, new makeover. Warning: this article may cause stomachs to rumble.
These days you simply have to announce your new career path, grab your ingredients and your mobile and snap away. Introducing, the 21st century baker…
Perfect for Pinterest
Looking for baking inspiration? Pinterest is the place to start with pins and boards dedicated to cookies, cupcakes and wedding desserts. Search for ‘baking’ on Pinterest and the results are endless, from raspberry yoghurt muffins to no-bake strawberry cheesecakes. It seems the weirder, the better, as seemingly opposing ingredients that produce eye-pleasing results work really well.
Baking Means Business
It’s good for businesses too. Although individuals can share their latest recipes and newest cake designs, local shops and cooking companies can share images of their baked goods to raise awareness of their brands too. Bakeries can make potential customers salivate over their iced cakes and chocolate brownies. Take Krispy Kreme for example, as they post pictures of their famous doughnuts to their 925k Instagram followers on a daily basis – well they do say if you’ve got it, flaunt it.
“Is he going to be okay?”, “I’m afraid we’ve lost him…to his Facebook feed.”
We’ve all scrolled down Facebook and seen videos of the wedding cakes being designed – glorious, multi-coloured structures that when sliced produce sweets or chocolate. There are also images and videos of cakes that have been tailored to famous faces or buildings, desserts made out of people’s favourite alcohol or giant versions of everyday baked goods. Videos tend to generate a lot of interest and when paired with good-looking cakes, biscuits and scones, the engagement really does rise like baked bread! These kind of videos do have dangerous side effects though, including hunger, licking of phone screens and a complete lack of social awareness.
You Can Eat… Insta-ntly
Food is already a big trend on social media, with Instagram at the forefront of the cuisine brigade. Sharing pictures of your meals from restaurants or the lasagne your mother made before eating is a popular ritual amongst social media users. Therefore, it will come as no surprise that sharing pictures and recipes of the perfect cupcake will generate a lot of buzz and engagement too. Firstly, bakers on Instagram have the content – really good images and recipes that people will desire to know. Accounts that feature baked goods are normally very aesthetically pleasing and users can find over 15 million public posts through the hashtag ‘#baking’ on the photo sharing app. There are also thousands of photos under the variations ‘#bakingacake’, ‘#bakingvideo’ and ‘#bakingcookies’ – the demand really is out there.
Doughnut Worry About Following the Crowd
There are also a range of different accounts stirring around on social media, all of which are dedicated to various kinds of baking. Predominant types in digital baking include cupcake creators and cake decorators, but there are also bread bakers, sweet makers and individuals who are trying to find healthy or gluten-free alternatives to everyone’s favourite desserts.
In this age, anyone can be a baker, with recipes listed endlessly on the Internet and step-by-step guides on making ‘giant cookies’. However, to really stand out amongst the cooking crowd, it’s important to find a niche or put a spin on everyday baking that makes your cakes different.
