TRACEY BENDINGER | Culture | Contact

The warm smell of perfectly cooked chocolate brownies circled around Sammy Lee’s apartment this morning, before being followed by the distinct smell of something burning.

Having been in lockdown for a month, Sammy thought it was time to test out her baking skills on her soon to be husband, Josh.

With no previous experience and no quality control, Sammy smugly pulled her half-burnt brownies out of the oven and proudly sat them on the bench.

“If that’s not wife material then I don’t know what is,” she said to herself, before the smoke alarm sounded and she was jerked back to reality.

The quality of Sammy’s cake is yet to be tested, before Josh could taste the brownies Sammy began sawing through the hard crust that had formed on her brownies in preparation of freezing them, just like her grandmother would during the war.

While it is great to see so many young Australians taking up baking, it might not sit well with some of the older members in the baking community.

According to an ABS study, the number of cakes and biscuits getting baked in Australia has surpassed the daily record previously set in the CWA heyday. In 1973 the CWA members were pumping out 500-600 cakes a day, but with every Aussie now a casual baker, the numbers now sit around 2000 cakes a day.

The Advocate has reached out to the head of Betoota’s CWA branch, but she is yet to return our call.

More to come.