I love vintage but I don’t love baking

As The Great British Bake Off starts tonight, I have a confession to make. I love vintage but I don’t bake. And what’s more, I don’t want to!

There I’ve said it! In recent years it feels like to be into the vintage scene you have to have a small obsession with baking and cake. There’s vintage tea rooms with a slice of cake at every vintage fair (ours included). There’s even baking recipes in vintage magazines. I presume it exploded the same time as GBBO but to be honest I reckon it all started with the growth of the cup cake.

Remember life before cup cakes and bunting? I don’t even reckon people made cup cakes with oodles of sprinkles on and piped pink butter cream in the old days. In the 1940s, they were definitely more interested in creating a more earthy cake using handpicked apples.

Now don’t get me wrong, I do eat cake (especially the pallenta cake in my local coffee shop) but with my seriously reduced sugar this year, I do find there isn’t really a healthy alternative. In these vintage tea rooms I end up with nothing on my pretty china plate and an empty tummy. As I don’t drink caffeine either, I literally sit with a glass of water, feeling like rationing never ended!

So to celebrate the next few weeks, with even more baking cake inspiration on the telly, let me share some of my healthy treats, all served on my vintage china.

almond milk porridge with berries in vintage Pyrex

Sugar free brownies with dates, pecans and raw cacao on Midwinter

Coconut milk, banana, strawberries, oats and raw cacao smoothie in a Kilner jar

Salmon and asparagus salad in Midwinter

salmon on rye on Homemaker

spinach and berry nutriblast in a 1980s tumbler

Salmon  on rye on Midwinter

Banana and spinach pancakes

salmon on crackers on Royal Doulton

Strawberry tips in water in vintage glass