Great British bakes (with benefits)

As Bake Off returns, Xanthe Clay shows how cakes can be just as joyful with a little less sugar and a whole lot of flavour

On your marks, get set – Bake! Yes, The Great British Bake

Off is back on Tuesday, which is good news for those of us with a sweet tooth. Not for me the saintly expression and murmurs of “I’m more of a savoury person” when the dessert menu comes around. Bring on the cheesecake, the black forest gateau and the salted caramel brownies.

Much has been made of the youth of this year’s set of contestants, who are fresher than a batch of Paul Hollywood’s just-baked buns. Seven – more than half – are in their 20s, four are in their early-to-mid30s and online project manager Helena only just hits 40. That leaves Phil Thorne the HGV driver, who at a mere 56 seems a bit young to represent the groovy grey brigade. And there’s not one granny – or grandpa – among them.

I’ll miss the steadying quality that the likes of retired head teacher Val Stones and Merchant Navy veteran Norman Calder gave the show – who could forget Stormin’ Norman’s Zulu

Boats at Dawn in biscuit form? As one fan tweeted, “I like the older contestants… who would knock out a decent but mediocre-looking cake, finish early, then sit there sipping tea whilst everyone else ran round like headless chickens.”

Still, apparently millennials love their baking, so perhaps it makes sense to producers – and advertisers – to target that market. And, for all the beautiful Instagram shots, those makers of sprinkles and cup cake cases may be worried. According to The Grocer magazine, sales of baking ingredients and paraphernalia have dropped by £12million in the past year. It’s not that we are going off cooking generally, but simply that we are more health-conscious, so making a stack of sugarpacked millionaire’s shortbread or quivering pile of meringues just doesn’t seem quite such a good idea.

Certainly I’ve been baking a bit more thoughtfully recently. Not healthily, exactly – all of these recipes are strictly in the treats category. But they are lower in sugar and refined carbs than many recipes because, while manufactured food gets insidiously sweeter and sweeter (often with artificial sweetener, so they can still claim to be lowsugar) at home it makes sense to roll it back and reset our taste buds a bit. And it turns out that cakes can be just as joyful with a bit less sugar. Adding some fibre too, from vegetables or brown flour, will help slow down the absorption of what sugar there is, making them more steady pleasures.

These cakes and bakes aren’t sugarfree, mind. A bit of sugar is necessary for the structure of most cakes, although if you are adapting an existing recipe, a 25 per cent or even 50 per cent reduction usually works – just don’t try it with meringues, which are essentially just puffs of sugar. In most cakes though, we need some sugar for the flavour, too – I’ve tried making a carrot cake without sweetener, and believe me, that route can only lead to disappointment.

When I say sugar, I mean sugar in all its concentrated guises. Beware of recipes that claim to be sugar-free, but contain agave syrup, or date syrup, or honey, or maple syrup or coconut sugar – they are all just forms of sugar, so a cake made with these is not sugarfree. They may contain traces of minerals, or have a marginally lower glycemic index than regular sugar, but it isn’t enough to be meaningful. Use these alternatives to traditional sugar because you like the flavour or texture – and they are delicious – not because of any misplaced conception that they are any healthier.

As for flavours, in this year’s Bake Off I reckon they are going to be more varied than ever. There’ll definitely be someone baking with brown butter – butter heated until it starts to caramelise – plus more in the way of fresh herbs hitting the mixing bowl (maybe lemon balm, this summer’s “it” herb) as well as the obligatory wacky ingredients like avocado – which actually makes a surprisingly good creamy chocolate icing.

Stand by your mixer, it’s time to get baking again. And yes, I will see the dessert menu.

It makes sense to reset our taste buds. Cakes can be just as joyful with a bit less sugar