Bakedin baking subscription box review: The waste-free way to improve your baking skills

Subscription boxes are hardly a new phenomenon. Whether it’s a weekly food delivery like Gusto or a monthly beauty box, there are plenty of ways to spoil yourself or your family with a recurring letterbox-sized treat.

Baking website Bakedin offers something a little different from the norm, though: a baking subscription box dedicated entirely to creating cakes and bread. The rather aptly named Baking Club delivers dry ingredients to your door every month, so you can learn how to bake everything from banana bread to crunchy rolls.

As more of us take to baking our own sweet treats and bread at home, Bakedin’s subscription box is an easy way to develop these new-found skills without having to shell out for expensive courses or lessons.

Bakedin baking subscription box review: What you need to know

• Monthly letterbox baking subscription box
• Cake-only and bread-only options available
• Price from £7.50/mth
• 12, 6, 3 and rolling monthly subscriptions

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Bakedin baking subscription box review: What do you get for the money?

Bakedin offers two types of baking subscription box to choose from. The cake-only box will always contain sweet treats, while the bread-only box can be sweet and savoury. Whichever box you choose, the premise is the same. In the box is a recipe booklet, plus all the dry ingredients you need to make one delicious bread or cake-based creation each month. Ingredients include, but aren’t limited to, things like flour, sugar, salt, yeast and chocolate.

You’ll also receive handy extras such as skewers, pre-cut baking paper and a butter measuring card (if the recipe calls for it), so you can even bake without scales. No wet ingredients are included in the box, as these can be perishable, but this does mean you can have the box delivered while you’re away without worry.

Every month is different and what’s inside stays a surprise until it hits your doorstep. Previous months have included millionaire shortbread, Eton mess cake, pear and frangipane tart and chocolate cheesecake brownies. The bread-only subscription box, which launched just this month (October 2020), includes all the bits needed for 12 tiger rolls.

Prices start from £7.50/mth when you take out a 12-month subscription, costing £90 in total. There’s also a set 6-month subscription for £8.16/mth (£49 total) or 3-month subscription for £10/mth (£30 total). Alternatively, if you’d prefer not to lock yourself into anything long term, you can choose a rolling monthly subscription for £11/mth.

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Bakedin baking subscription box review: What’s good about it?

On the surface, the price of Bakedin might seem a little steep. After all, the basics like flour, sugar and chocolate can all be picked up for relatively little. When you compare it to the escalating cost of buying a new set of ingredients each month, though, it’s easier to see how this is an affordable way to expand your baking repertoire risk free. Many of the bakes call for pricier ingredients like nuts and ground rice flour, which can cost a small fortune in the shops. But for little more than a Netflix subscription, Bakedin provides you with pretty much everything you need.

Not only does the box come with all the dry ingredients you need to bake, all the bags are pre-measured and numbered, too. This makes it incredibly simple to whip something up with relative ease and means you don’t need three cupboards worth of space to store all the different flours and sugars you’d have to buy if you were going it alone. It also means there’s less waste, as you won’t be left with half-full bags of excess ingredients that you’ll never use again.

What’s more, so you’re not just mindlessly pouring ingredients into a bowl, the instruction booklet also lists what’s in each bag, as well as what order to mix them. This means you can develop your skills and understanding of different ingredients without having to worry about keeping track of quantities.

The step-by-step instructions in both the bread and cake boxes were foolproof and timings and temperatures were accurate, too. This resulted in two fantastic bakes, as well as plenty of happy friends and family who got to taste-test after.

Bakedin baking subscription box review: What could be better?

The biggest downside to Bakedin’s baking subscription box is that there are no plans for a vegan option at the moment. This is a real shame for dairy-free bakers but it doesn’t mean we won’t see one in the future. Bakedin has told us it’s currently working on a gluten-free alternative, but there’s no word on when this will be yet, so keep your eyes peeled.

Another smaller niggle is that you may still have to buy some ingredients, so the overall cost can amount to more if you don’t already have things like butter or cream in your fridge. Moreover, if you’re completely new to baking and don’t have any of the right tools, you will need to invest in some of these too, as most recipes require you to have the basics such as a sheet pan and springform baking tin. Luckily, Bakedin also sells these on the site, so you can add a few baking essentials to your basket when you sign up.

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Bakedin baking subscription box review: Should you buy it?

If you already enjoy cooking but are keen to expand your baking repertoire, this is an incredibly economical way to do so. Every month is different, and there’s a huge range of recipes to try, no matter which baking subscription box you opt for. You get almost everything you need delivered straight to your door and it’s all weighed and labelled for you, so you can just focus on the techniques and the enjoyment of trying something new.

Better still, there are plenty of subscription lengths to choose from and if you opt for a rolling contract you can cancel at any time, making it relatively risk-free. All in all, it’s an easy, fast and fun way to develop your baking skills and enjoy more delicious homemade cake or bread.