Part work, Baked and Delicious magazine has been a big hit on Facebook with 14,000 people who “like” it, several thousand of whom declared their love before copies were on sale.
The first issue costs 99p, the second £2.99 and subsequent issues are £4.99. It claims to be “packed with international classics and traditional favourites” and that it “brings the very best of baking to today’s cooks.” As a further sweetener, each issue comes with a piece of colourful silicone bakeware. Subscribers also get “free” gifts such as electronic kitchen scales, cake tins, cake slices and the all important binder.
I’ve been amazed how many people have raved about this magazine in other blog reviews, to the point I’m wondering if they haven’t given it much thought or feel uncomfortable calling it a dud.
My Baked and Delicious Magazine REVIEW
We call spades spades here. My impression after reviewing issue one of Baked and Delicious was that it is:
- Flimsy at fewer than 30 pages per issue
- Cheap with pound shop quality bakeware gifts
- Overpriced for such a short magazine even bearing in mind the “free” gift
- Dated with 1980s yellow tinged photography
- Dreary with graphics that look like they were created in MS Word
- Unsophisticated with uninspiring food styling
- Badly edited with inconsistent layout and typos
On the plus side, the Gateaux St Honore recipe was the most useful but you’d do better to spend your cash on some generic baking books instead of doggedly committing to this week after week. For around £7.99 you can easily pick up little hardback baking books in the supermarket and discount book stores. You can add to your bakeware collection as necessary.
(For a highly informative post on the pros and cons of silicone bakeware, check out my friend Ozoz Kitchen Butterfly’s excellent post here)
Baked and Delicious has been out a while now but new subscribers get to buy back copies. Sixty issues are planned. If you want to back out, I’m informed you can cancel subscriptions at any time.
Never mind the subject, the very thought of collections of magazines gives me the heebie jeebies ;-O
Don’t succumb to it people!
Why clutter your home with £100s worth of magazines when you could buy a good book and some useful tools?
I absolutely agree!
I was a bit miffed they hadn’t asked me to review when it seemed that so many other bloggers had, but when I looked at a copy it seemed really cheap and badly thought through. I agree, I’d recommend novice bakers try a good baking book and then once they’re confident have a play around.
I don’t get on with silicone bakeware at all though, I just thought I was old fashioned, glad to see I’m not the only one!
ho ho, at least you know now you didn’t miss much and actually they weren’t necessarily people who’d had copies… I had to push to get one!
I totally agree with you. I thought I was the only person in the UK that thought it was rubbish.
I flicked through it once then it went straight into the recycling. Poor quality magazine which only has about 4 recipes – won’t be buying it!
Heh! It appears the response is “lousy lousy lousy” all round then?!
I too was unimpressed with this. When I saw the TV advert I was indeed drawn in and decided to buy the first issue as it was only 99p. However with cheap bakeware and a rather thin magazine I decided that I would save my money each week and instead invest in recipe collection when I saw books that really appealed to me. One of my favourite things about baking books are when the imagery is really enticing and makes you want to try the recipe. I think good design really draws me to books and I love looking at a book full of luscious images. I don’t feel the magazine delivered this and so like you I wont be buying it again!
Totally!
I subscribe to the magazine and have had 7 issues so far. I have to say, for the beginner they really aren’t that bad.
They are definitely over-priced for something with so few pages, but the free gifts are not bad quality. The recipes are easy to follow and quite varied.
I wouldn’t go so far as to recommend it, but it’s not a bad magazine in my opinion.