Home bakers rise to fresh challenges

Creative work in the kitchen relieves stress

Baking is taking the internet by storm, as people staying at home during the novel coronavirus pandemic look for ways to occupy themselves and reduce stress.

Hospital worker Yan Bo from Yantai, Shandong province, noticed the trend shortly after Wuhan, Hubei province, was placed under lockdown in late January to curb the spread of COVID-19.

On a Sina Weibo account, the 45-year-old, who has been making bread as a hobby for more than 10 years, documents the different types she has produced.

Many people suddenly flocked to the account to learn how to make bread, and Yan now has some 700,000 followers.

"This is no surprise. Baking helps me find peace in a chaotic world, which is a comfort that others can find, especially during this stressful period," she said.

"When I'm in the kitchen, I focus on baking and feel relieved that I can get away from the news, work, relationships and other things."

Yan is clearly not alone. As of Thursday, pages related to "baking recipes" had more than 910 million views on Sina Weibo.

A recent home baking report released by recipe-sharing app Douguo showed that in the first three months of this year, the number of queries made about baking was three times the figure for the same period last year. No precise details were given.

The report found that people in South China prefer chiffon cake, while those in northern areas of the country favor milk bread.

Douguo's co-founder Zhong Feng said that with the pandemic confining people to home, the passion for baking has been unprecedented.

In addition to increasing health awareness, more people "feel connected to others" by posting news on social media of the bread or cakes they have made, Zhong said.

Even disastrous baking attempts have been a hot topic on Sina Weibo, with the hashtag "dream-haunting" viewed more than 690 million times as of Thursday.

Demand has surged for baking staples, some of which have been in short supply. At one time, yeast was hard to find on grocery store shelves and online, with more people baking at home during the pandemic.

The search engine Baidu reported a rising number of queries about "how to make bread without yeast".

Statistics from e-commerce platform JD show that from January to March, sales of baking staples such as cream, yeast, butter and flour rose by 321 percent year-on-year, and those for utensils, including egg beaters, spatulas, greaseproof paper and flour sifters, grew by 360 percent.

Sales of yeast in early February were 10 times those reported for the same period last year.

People－not only in China but around the world－have taken to baking to cope with stress during the pandemic, with yeast shortages also reported in supermarkets across the United Kingdom and the United States. Demand for flour has surged in France, Germany and Australia.