Cup cake can make us happy Essay Example for Free

Cup cake support make us happy EssayAn afternoon spent whipping up cakes, biscuits and pies doesnt just make your kitchen savor amazing, it can also help each(prenominal)eviate stock, anger and even depression. Baking enthusiast Alix Walker reveals wherefore its making us very happy Pspicyography Patrice De Villiers Baking Pamela Giles Supermodel Karlie Kloss whitethorn have got appe ard on 20 magazine covers this year alone, but she still finds time to s turn back the editors at US dash her homemade toffee at Christmas.She also spends the night before important shoots bake her Perfect 10 Kookies (milkbarstore. com) to calm her nerves. I may be a good foot shorter (and wider) than Karlie, but we do have something in common. Two weeks before my wedding I decided it would be a brilliant estimate to bake my own four-tiered wedding cake. It wasnt alike(p) I was already ab let on to internally push through and through with stress or anything When we launched Stylist I worke d until 2am for three months but I still spent my maiden weekend off making a giant powdered gingerbread house. When Im feeling stressed and overwhelmed, like my brain cant quite focus and my heart is a bit racy, I bake. buns Whaite, the winner of The Great British cook Off 2012, has spoken about how baking helped with his depression. He says, You can turn the destructive into the creative just by stirring some sugar and eggs. Working through the steps of a recipe in a methodical way means you dont have time to concentrate on everything else that is whirring through your mind. Spending an afternoon in cover sugar is certainly becoming an increasingly popular pastime. The fourth series of The Great British Bake Off started on BBC Two last Tuesday night, hoping to draw in even more viewers than the 7.2 cardinal who watched last years series finale.Sales of baking paraphernalia have shot up at John Lewis cult baking clubs like Band Of Bakers and Clandestine Cake Club are popping up around the country and owning a KitchenAid is suddenly as prestigious as possessing an black lovage Wang bag. And this is not a hobby just for the retired 287 Stylistreaders lovingly crafted everything from a Ryan Gosling cake to the perfect afternoon tea in our competition to bake this weeks cover (click here to read an interview with Pamela Giles, who sunbaked the winning cover), showing the passion for baking among professional 30-somethings.Weve fallen back in love with this old hobby for a simple reason it makes us happy. In an increasingly fast-paced and unpredictable world, baking has become the modern womans stress buster. Today, we spend eight hours a day in front of a computer screen and rarely have something tangible to show at the end of it. Modern technology means we dont switch off until we actually sleep. Baking is the antithesis to this. Its physical. Methodical. It cant be rushed. Follow a recipe step by step and youre almost (almost) guaranteed a certain re sult.There is calm in its predictability reassurance in its simplicity. Unconvinced? Type stress bake into Google and nearly seven million entries flash up. In addition,the Depressed Cake Shop, a series of baking pop-ups, appeared throughout the UK this month to recognise the power of baking to soothe (not cure) depression. And author Marian Keyes wrote her commencement exercise cookbook Saved By Cake after a parvenue be passion for baking pulled her out of depression To be perfectly blunt, my choice sometimes is I can kill myself or I can make a dozen cupcakes.Baking makes me focus. It is sort of magic you start off with all this disparate stuff and what you end up with is so totally different. Sweet and scientific It makes sense, really. For a start, the techniques apply in baking stirring, mixing, kneading are very similar to other proven stress relievers such as knitting or squeezing a stress ball. Chartered psychologist Dr Jill Owen explains Repetitive behaviour and ritua ls can be very effective in increasing focus and reducing stress.Countless studies have also found a strong connection between being creative and wellbeing. Focusing on a new icing technique means you dont focus on individual pieces of information, which is why you may find the answer to the problem youve been stewing on all day the minute you bring your hot cross buns out of the oven. You also receive an extra shot of happiness when you see the optimistic reaction your baking has on other people. Then, of course, theres the eating.Tucking into a thick slab of apricot and ginger cake, a flaky millefeuille or a raspberry clafoutis subtly change our brain chemistry, making us altogether happier. The sweet sticky carbohydrates trigger the release of insulin into the blood, which clears out all the amino acids in the blood stream apart from tryptophan, which is then converted into serotonin in your brain, that warm, fuzzy hormone that makes us want to rack people and smile a satisfie d grin. That, in my opinion, is worth all the calories.