Baking on a budget

While baking is fun, it can sometimes be an expensive hobby. This was particularly a problem when I was a student so I came up with some nifty ways of saving my pennies.

Shop smart

Supermarket own brands of ingredients are often so much cheaper than the branded versions. I always use value flour which is always under £1 for 1.5kg and works just as well. You can also grab some bargains in budget supermarkets such as Lidl who have expanded their baking range in recent years. I even found some usually expensive ingredients like ground almonds in the pound shop. It does pay to shop around!

Find cheaper ingredients

You can often find ingredients at a reduced price if you look outside of the baking aisle. For example, chocolate and cocoa powder is usually cheaper if you pick them up in the confectionary or hot drinks aisle. Instead of chocolate chips, I like to buy an inexpensive bar of chocolate and chop it into chunks. It tastes better and is a fraction of the cost! Butter can also be pricey so Stork is a great substitute when making sponge cakes. Try to make as much as possible from scratch, homemade icing and pastry is much cheaper than their supermarket counterparts. Free range eggs can also be dear but many supermarkets do boxes of mixed sized eggs which are cheaper than buying ones that are all the same size. The ultimate free ingredients can be found outside. Be inspired by the seasons and bake with what's available such as my pear and blackberry pie, blackberry ice lollies or wild garlic scones.

You don't need fancy equipment

I love looking at posh baking equipment in shops like Lakeland but can't afford the dear price tag. Most of my kit is from supermarkets, Poundland, Wilkos and even the Works. These shops have surprisingly pretty ranges and often you just need something that is functional. If you don't have a certain piece of equipment, be creative. I used a clean wine bottle to roll pastry before I got around to buying a rolling pin! If you don't have scales, you can use the internet to convert measurements into cups. Cookbooks are also quite costly so scour the internet for fabulous recipes on blogs, YouTube, Pinterest and websites like BBC Good Food.

So there are some of my budget baking hacks. Happy baking!

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