One of the hottest trends this year is almost certainly going to be baking. Towards the end of last year, baking really took off, with more and more people donning their aprons and getting into the kitchen.

While cupcakes and tarts are extremely popular, it’s worth remembering that you can jump on the baking bandwagon even if you don’t have a sweet tooth.

Making bread and pastries is a fantastic way to get involved in the baking revolution, even if you hate buttercream!

The very important thing to remember though is that if you’re going down the savoury route, you’ll definitely need to have plenty of time on your hands – it’s not going to be an easy process.

One of the best things you’ll ever bake, without a doubt, is homemade croissants. It’s a fairly tedious process to go through – think rising, folding in butter, rolling and folding the dough time and time again – before you end up with the finished product. But really, it’s amazing and definitely well worth it!

If you want to get adventurous with dough but you don’t quite have the time or patience to get on with croissants, why not try making bread instead? Time and effort will really pay off in the end, whether you’re making a granary bread loaf or a ciabatta.

The best thing is, you don’t need a fancy bread maker to get started and experimental. If you’re making white bread or bread, you’ll just need to get mixing and line a tin ready for you to plonk your perfect dough in.

Just make sure you read the recipe you’re using properly and you should end up with a fine example of a loaf – tap the bottom when you take it out of the oven, you want it to be hollow to know it’s cooked. Then once you’re done, you can get started on tomorrow’s sandwiches – go on, try it!