Why should you bake on a budget? If you know anything about the history of baking, sweet baked treats were really only for royalty and the aristocracy. Baking bread like products has been around for thousands of years.

Saving time and money in the kitchen: Why should you bake on a budget? Domesblissity.com

The history of using sugar in baking

Sugar has been around for thousands of years but using it to bake sweet treats as we know it didn’t happen until around the 16th century by the French.


The common methods we use today are all based on these French techniques and recipes and have evolved over the years to what we know and see so commonly in bakeries and supermarkets.

When women didn’t have a choice but to bake on a budget

Events like the World Wars put restrictions on common household ingredients like sugar, eggs and butter so the women of the day would have to become more inventive with their baking using fruit and vegetables to make their sweet treats.

Syrups and other sugar by products like treacle and molasses (cheaper and more readily available) were introduced into regular baking and puddings.

Many women from this era (including my grandmothers) continued to pass down these recipes to their children as most times they produced a really lovely product that tasted good, was cheap to make and you used basic pantry staples and fruit or vegetables that needed to be used up.

How cooking shows & social media cost us extra money

Fast forward to more recent years with the introduction of TV cooking shows and we are trying to emulate these recipes at home and the ingredients are costing a fortune!

(Mind you, I was watching cooking shows from the 70’s and most of them were teaching woman how to cook easy, simple meals that you could make in a hurry.)

That’s fantastic if you’ve got the budget for it but really, at the end of the day, who as the time, energy or money to be making these fine delicacies?

As soon as someone posts a recipe on social media made with speciality chocolate or chocolate bar, for example, some people feel they have to run to the supermarket to make that same thing.

Or 2 packets of Tim Tams, 2 tubs of cream cheese and blocks of chocolate to melt to make something else that someone has shared on social media.

Don’t get me started on the crazy creations on some of these cooking shows. I’ve seen some recipes using 12 eggs, 3 blocks of chocolate, cream, hazelnuts etc etc.

Feel free to do that if you want but if you want to save money on groceries, keep the basic pantry staples on hand (remember it’s not WW 2 anymore – we do have ready access to flour, sugar, eggs and butter all the time) and make those simple family favourites that everyone loves so much.

How to bake on a budget

Use up fruit and vegetables that might be on their way out. Sweet potato and pumpkin is lovely in muffins and cakes. Yoghurts, cream cheese, sour cream etc is also good for using up in baking.

Find one good recipe for a cake, one for a slice or bars, one for a muffin and one for a cookie/biscuit and just adapt them to suit what you have.

Saving time and money in the kitchen: Why should you bake on a budget? Domesblissity.com

If you’d like a slice of Sachertorte or Opera Gateau head to your local French patisserie and treat yourself a slice. You’ll enjoy the time off, enjoy not having to spend the money on the ingredients nor the time it took to make it. (On the other hand, if that’s your thing, go right ahead.)