There was a time when you could guarantee that every cake shop or bakery you walked into would have a Victoria sandwich, maybe a carrot cake or coffee and walnut, and probably something smothered in chocolate. Today’s bakery tells a very different story. There’s international influence in almost everything we see, with France and U.S leading the pack; a croissant or éclair happily nestling between brownies and muffins. So far so good, French pâtisserie has always been at the heart of any pastry chef’s skill set, and U.S has always been known for being ahead of the crowd, always aiming to do things bigger and better. What we’ve seen in recent years is the amalgamation of the two, a world of hybrids where you no longer have to make that tricky decision between deep-fried doughnutty satisfaction and the elegant, buttery flakiness of a croissant. Enter the cronut, quickly followed by the cruffin (croissant-muffin), duffin (doughnut-muffin), dangel (Danish-bagel), townie (tart-brownie) and many more. Along the same lines, a wave of cake pops (cake-lollipops) swept the nation, while cupcakes took on flavour combinations traditionally reserved for desserts and drinks – the tiramisu cupcake, the mojito cupcake, the Eton Mess cupcake, the green tea cupcake…
We all know that there’s a fine line between genius and madness: has the baking world crossed that line? Are these merely fads and fancies, or is there actual substance and clout to these creations? Pastry consultant and pop-up bakery owner, Daniel Fletcher, helped me sort the cruffins from the nuffins.