Bakery
Setting up a bakery business from home
Setting up a baking business is exciting, but it can be tricky to know where to begin. From telling the taxman and registering your premises, to Instagramming your beautiful bakes, our 7 steps will get you started.
Middle Ages
In the medieval period baking was a luxury few were able to enjoy. But those who could afford a wood-burning stove (and to heat it) would start with bread. The better the quality, the higher up the social order you were
Ovens were not a standard fixture in any household, so bread-baking never really entered the home in the medieval period, says Pennell. It was a niche, commercial activity. For example, you had bread-bakers in London.
Rich people ate fine, floured wheat bread. But if you were poor you cut your teeth on rye and black bread, says Walter. Only the very wealthy ate the cakes we tend to think of today. But they were much heavier – 10 to 20lbs. This was subsistence-focused baking, with an emphasis on bread and pies.
19th century
Convenience food grew in popularity in the 19th century, and the advent of baking powder saw cakes become lighter
As more working-class women were employed in the 19th century, they had less time for elaborate food preparation, says Walter. “We often think of the ‘fast food culture’ as being a recent thing, but women in Britain in the 19th century increasingly relied on convenience food such as pasties and pies.”
Meanwhile, the introduction of baking powder saw the style of cakes change from dense, yeast-based bakes, into cakes made with flour, eggs, fat and a raising agent.