Tea & Whiskers: Brooke Baking Scandal

I've been following a bit of a news story the last few days - it's the Brooke Baking Scandal, at least, that's what I've come to call it in my head. Now, I'm not on TicTok, so I don't know anything about TicTok chiefs or TicTok Bakers - but I do love Cookbooks and Baking Books. I love collecting them.

In another life, I would have loved to have been a baker. I love cooking.

But, unfortunately I have no one to cook for, and cooking/baking to me is something I do to give and provide for others. You also have to have resources and finances to cook, and when you're tight on pennies, well, I assure you - baking is the last thing you think about doing. Eggs, chocolate...expensive...okay...expensive!

Thus, I appreciate the art of reading cookbooks and dreaming of all the wonderful things I could bake if I had a family. Hey, a woman can dream.

This is why I am finding this particular drama really amusing.

Because I read cookbooks, some of them are really old cookbooks - like - I've got a few from the 60's and 70's that I've picked up from just random book sales.

So, one of the recipes that is pointed out in this scandal is a caramel slice and I honestly burst out laughing when I saw this. I was like, are you - serious - I have seen so many variations of the caramel over the years and they're all very similar.

So, here - look a this - evidence of plagiarism...

From news.com.au

Yeah, okay, super-weird that it's almost word for word with identical measurements - I'll give Maehashi that, but I was immediately reminded upon seeing this suspicious recipe of others I've seen. The caramel slice isn't unique or special or somehow magical to these two people, Maehashi and Brooke - I have seen the base recipe in various forms in so many cookbooks.

For example, here is a similar recipe - a chocolate slice, not a caramel - in a 1970's Woman's Weekly cookbook.

The thing about all the slice recipes, especially those in the Woman's Weekly cookbooks, is that they are all very simplistic and designed to be built off each other. So, if you have a base slice, you can make a chocolate slice, or a raspberry slice, or an apple slice etc. etc. by just changing one or two ingredients. You'll start to notice this if you read the older style cookbooks (as I do, you know, for fun...because...I'm boring like that.) I presume this was so that women in the kitchen could quickly and easily whip up nice treats without much hassle, and really, I think that's cool and should totally be brought back.

Now, okay, that Woman's Weekly recipe, not a total comparison, maybe they do have an argument for plagiarism? I still think that ridiculous, because it's caramel slice, but here is another similar recipe.

It's not exact, but it's got similar same pieces. Now I would keep pulling examples out, but this is the current state of my library, so, I couldn't actually get at my cookbooks. ^_^;;

Now, mostly in this scandal, I am frustrated that someone's entire livelihood (and not just their livelihood, but that of those who work under them and around them) has been effected. I cannot imagine the distress that Brooke and her family must be experiencing at being accused of something, when, honestly, I have always thought the same that she said:

“While baking has leeway for creativity, much of it is a precise science and is necessarily formulaic. Many recipes are bound to share common steps and measures: if they don’t, they simply don’t work."

I feel like this is something that should be common knowelage.

Do you know how many variations of pumpkin soup I've made - I could make a pumpkin soup cookbook with how well I know pumpkin soup, but at this rate, I'd be accused of something from someone, somewhere. ^_^;;

I do not like the culture of cancellation that the internet breeds, I think it's disgusting and degrading. I don't think it's appropriate at all that Brooke has been dropped as an ambassador for the Academy for Enterprising Girls.

I am of the mind that we don't tear people down, that we should always uplift each other. I love to see other people flourishing in what they do, in what they love, for that makes me happy - I was always so excited to see other author's selling their books and doing marvelously well at conventions because if they were doing well, then that was fantastic for them. To wish ill upon another person just seems like an utter waste of resources. To accuse someone publicly of being a copycat, in a field like cooking/baking - I just - I fail to understand how it is at all beneficial to anyone involved.

Everything that has been done, has probably been done before you, and that needs to be respected in baking and cooking. You're not the first person to invent the wheel, you're just exploring different ways to spin it, and that's what I have always loved about cooking/baking and why I love cookbooks. It honestly feels like one of the ways you can absorb a skill from ancient past, and people you don't even know, and experience cultures beyond your own.

That's something to share - not to horde.

And now I want caramel slice.