Food Crafting Main Hobby for Women: Survey
Wilton, a leading company in cake decorating, bakeware and food crafting for more than 80 years, recently released the results of its bi-annual Celebration Report, an online survey conducted by a third party.
“Food crafting, which includes cake decorating, is the number one hobby for women,” says Nancy Siler, vice president of consumer affairs at Wilton.
“This survey tells us that baking and decorating at home is enjoyed as an economical way to ensure celebrations that are full of color, sweetness and fun.”
[ Also Read: Survey Reveals What Americans Like to Eat ]Nearly half of the survey respondents (46%) indicated that cost savings is a plus when it comes to baking at home versus purchasing baked goods. This attention to cost savings jumped 18% from the last survey conducted in 2008.
Topline results for each of the categories in the survey – Baking, Decorating, Celebrating – are:
Baking: Cookies most popular!
While cookies are the most popular baked at-home treat (82% of respondents), items that have significantly grown in popularity since 2008 are: cakes (up 17%), brownies (up 18%) and cupcakes (up 15%).
Decorating: Decorators turn up the color!
Customizing the color of cakes and treats is almost a universal trend among committed decorators (87%).
Celebrating: Americans prefer to celebrate with cake!
Cake continues its dominance as the overall celebration dessert with 49% of respondents claiming their first choice for a party dessert is a decorated cake.
The survey also notes that “for holidays” is the most popular reason for baking (78%). With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, Wilton suggests the following project – a heart-shape chocolate cupcake that’s easy enough for the most novice baker-decorators.
[ Also Read: Making the Most Romantic Valentine’s Day Dish ]For step-by-step information, you can visit www.wilton.com.
The Wilton Celebration Report is the result of an online survey of 1,357 women who bake. This group was selected to closely match U.S. demographics and was conducted in August 2010 by a third party. The survey findings were released Tuesday, Jan. 25.
Wilton Enterprises, based in Woodridge, Illinois and founded in 1929, is the leading food crafting company.
Okay. The survey was sponsored by “the leading food crafting company” and only questioned women who bake. However, it’s not surprising that even as the economy improves (?) women continue to be home focused when it comes to entertainment and celebrations. Maybe they started to “food craft” because it saved money. But then they found out that DIY was fulfilling. In any event, it’s certainly consistent with predictions that consumer behavior post recession is forever changed. And similar DIY companies should keep this in mind when marketing their products to women.