The Lost Art of Scratch Baking

As a little kid, walking into the bakery and seeing the rows of sprinkle cookies, glistening black and white cookies, and cinnamon buns, you never thought about how the stuff got there. You just knew the bakery made it. In today’s bakery, rising payroll costs, ingredient costs, and less qualified bakers have forced the industry into buying more premade cake mixes, muffin batters, icings and toppings. This is the unfortunate reality of the world we live in. Less time for everything and more money for everything. Ask any person born in the 80’s in New York and they will tell you how many bakeries and cake shops there were on every street. Filled with strawberry shortcakes and fresh fruit tarts in the summer months and warm danishes and muffins in the winter months. Today you will still see those items on the shelf, but the way in which they got there has changed dramatically. The people doing most of the production are called bakers. But there is a difference between a baker and a mixer. The mixer is the guy who can make the dough, the batter. The brains behind the operation. The baker is the guy who knows how to take the ready-made bread dough or cookie and bake it in the oven. One has the talent, the other can follow directions. Not all hope is lost though. The good news is that pastry and culinary schools have continuous enrollment and it is growing. People are feeling less fulfilled in their regular jobs and have picked up baking and cake decorating as a hobby, then side business, and ultimately opening up their own business. Hopefully this passion in the new generation will translate into an exciting generation of bakeries with an homage to the past!