Welcome to our 2021 trends report

2021 has seen us begin to return to some normality after a rather difficult 2020 – it’s been so lovely to welcome our customers back to our stores. Our 2021 report looks at how emerging from a year of lockdowns has affected our cooking and baking habits, and whether we’ll be carrying on new trends, or returning to our old ways. Our survey polled 3,000 people to discover the impact that cooking, baking and cleaning has on their lives and, along with our own customer insight, our report provides an in-depth look at the state of the nation’s homes. We’ve explored how we’ve become a nation of baristas, snapping up coffee machines to make our own speciality coffees at home; how we continue to find new ways to lead greener lives; what role TikTok has to play when it comes to recipe inspiration; the rise of the air fryer, and so much more. It’s always fascinating to learn more about what makes us tick, and our report explores the hot topics of 2021, as well as taking a peek at what we have in store for 2022.

 

Victoria sponge reigns supreme

 

 

It has been a tumultuous 18 months. But has a once-in-a-generation event, one that caused many of us to completely re-evaluate our lives and priorities, altered our cake habits?

 

No.

 

Nothing has been able to take the Victoria sponge’s cake crown. Easy to make, delicious to eat, it’s not surprising it has held the lead spot as the cake we bake most often for the past four years. However, it is worth pointing out that the Victoria sponge enjoyed an 8% lead over chocolate cake back in 2018, but that lead has fallen to a mere 2% this year. Could 2022 see it pushed off the top of the cake stand? Maybe.

 

The products that shaped 2021

 

WHAT’S HOT?

 

+134% outdoor living

 

As many of us stayed at home over the summer and transformed our outdoor spaces into entertaining areas, sales of outdoor living products continued to rise. Ooni pizza ovens, barbecues, outdoor cooking accessories and tableware all saw incredible growth and we expect this to continue into 2022.

 

+113% air purifying

 

Many of us are now spending more time at home, and it’s prompted us to think more carefully about the air quality within our houses. Dust, pollutants, allergens, damp, all can have a negative effect on our health, and sales of air purifiers over the last 12 months demonstrate just how much more conscious many of us have become.

 

+57% Airfrying

 

Chips without the guilt? What’s not to like! We all want to be able to enjoy a ‘naughty’ treat from time to time, and air frying means we can indulge with all the flavour and much less fat. Sales of air fryers continue to grow compared with previous years – no surprise when you consider how versatile, easy to use and easy to clean they are. Pass the ketchup!

 

+30% slow cooking

 

During lockdown, lots of us fell back in love with slow cooking, or discovered it for the first time – the joy of throwing a load of ingredients into a slow cooker in the morning and being rewarded with a delicious, nutritious meal at the end of the day. And that hasn’t changed as things have opened up again, with people still looking for maximum flavour with minimum fuss.

 

+24% knives

 

Lockdown gave us all the opportunity to get creative in the kitchen, and our survey showed that a quarter of us are now cooking from scratch every day of the week, and an impressive 77% at least three days a week. All that extra chopping and dicing has led to an increase in knife sales, showing that customers view quality knives as a worthwhile investment.

 

WHATS NOT?

 

-15% Lunch on the go

 

Whether for work or school or the great outdoors, lunch bags and boxes are usually a popular choice. But with the nation still spending more time at home and less time in the office, customers haven’t needed to add to their existing collections.

 

-78% travel

 

Over half the people we surveyed are either planning limited travel, or planning not to travel at all for the foreseeable future. With far fewer of us heading overseas, the usual travel essentials just aren’t that, well, essential – especially if you don’t have to try and fit everything in an airline-approved carry-on case.

 

-19% bread

 

There was a huge boom in bread-making last year as many of us rediscovered the joy of homemade bread. It may not be quite as hot this year, but sales are still double what they were in 2019 – proving we just can’t get enough of lovely loaves.

 

How long do you spend cooking?

 

Much longer than back in 2018

 

We may be cooking a similar number of meals from scratch as before the lockdowns, but how much time are we spending at the stove? Quite a bit more. Back in 2018, 79% of us spent 30 minutes or more cooking a weekday evening meal. Now it’s 84%, and those spending an hour or more has jumped massively from 26% to 42%. It would seem that when we do cook, we want to make sure we lavish care and attention on a meal for ourselves or our loved ones.

 

Length of time taken – 2018 - 2021

 

5 mins - 1% - 2%

 

10 mins - 2% - 3%

 

15 mins - 6% - 7%

 

And what are we cooking from scratch?

 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the one thing we are most likely to have cooked from scratch over the last 18 months is a... cake. For a celebration, for comfort, for sheer deliciousness – nothing beats a home-baked cake. It seems recipes involving flour feature heavily in people’s repertoire. Nearly a third (30%) have cooked their own pizzas from scratch, perhaps encouraged by the boom in pizza oven ownership and the emergence of various pizza-making recipe kits that restaurants started to sell during lockdown. And 28% had a go at creating their own pastry. Less popular and requiring quite a lot of kitchen skill and patience: yoghurt, cheese and kimchi. Yes, people attempted all of these, with 9% trying their hand at yoghurt, 13% at cheese and 5% at kimchi, the fermented vegetable dish.

 

When it comes to baking, a surprising number of people have tried making dishes that most people usually only eat if they’ve bought it from a shop or ordered it at a restaurant. Baked Alaska is a dish so tricky that it famously resulted in a Great British Bake Off contestant throwing their endeavour in the bin, but 5% of people said they’ve cooked it from scratch in the last 18 months. Young people in particular are keen to experiment, with 8% of those aged 18-24 trying their hand at a Baked Alaska, 11% giving Mochi a try and an amazing 12% of young adults creating a wedding cake.

 

Possibly the cake of 2021, or at least the cake that generated the most headlines, was a certain caterpillar cake… Regardless of what team you were on during the battle of the supermarkets, it clearly prompted some consumers to see if they could do better, with 6% saying they had made their own caterpillar cake at home. Again, those aged 18-24 were far more adventurous, with 11% giving a caterpillar cake a go.

 

Where do we get our cooking inspiration?

 

On TikTok, Gordon Ramsay has 29 million followers. On YouTube, unknown home cooks are showcasing their ratatouille recipes or Oreo cake bakes and gaining over 30 million views.

 

Television executives are scouring social media, rather than restaurant kitchens, to discover the next big chef to sign up. You can even now ask your voice-activated speaker for cooking suggestions and they can talk you through how to whip up a healthy lunch. Surely, the days of leafing through an old-fashioned recipe book are over? Not at all. People still lean on the old ways when it comes to recipe ideas and cooking inspiration. Cookbooks, followed closely by “my mother”, are the two most likely sources for ideas – both received more than double the number of votes compared to YouTube and social media.

 

When cooking, who inspires you the most?

 

Cookbooks 14%

 

My mother 13%

 

TV cooking programmes 10%

 

Recipes found by searching online 8%

 

Recipes from YouTube 6%

 

Top five cookbooks of 2021

 

1 Pinch of Nom Quick & Easy: 100 Delicious, Slimming Recipes – Kay Featherstone & Kate Allinson, 136,781 copies

 

2 Jane’s Patisserie: Deliciously Customisable Cakes, Bakes & Treats – Jane Dunn, 104,415 copies

 

3 Together: Memorable Meals Made Easy – Jamie Oliver, 72,824 copies

 

4 Pinch of Nom Everyday Light: 100 Tasty, Slimming Recipes – Kay Featherstone & Kate Allinson, 66,969 copies

 

5 Tom Kerridge’s Outdoor Cooking: The Ultimate Modern Barbecue Bible – Tom Kerridge, 64,625 copies

 

30 weeks to Oct 9th 2021 Source: Nielsen Bookscan for Lakeland

 

2021: the year of viral recipes

 

TikTok has existed since 2018, but really took off during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. Alongside the dance videos, a vast array of chefs, home cooks, students and jokers have been whipping up cocktails and recipes on the platform. Some are plain silly – cooking steak in a toaster, anyone? Some, however, are ingenious, offering tips on how to make the perfect sushi or crispier roast potatoes. But which of the viral videos, racking up millions of views on TikTok and YouTube, actually crossed over into the mainstream?

 

Cloud bread – a fluffy, low carbohydrate bread, made using egg whites – has been one of the most viral recipes, racking up well over 200 million views. It certainly looks cartoonishly spectacular and is often coloured lurid blue or pink. But for all its online appeal, it has failed to become a family staple, with 71% of people saying they’ve never even heard of it, and just one in eight saying they’ve made it.

 

Hasselback potatoes – a way of baking potatoes that makes them as crunchy as a good roastie – had a life before they went viral on TikTok and YouTube. Which may explain why they come out as the viral recipe that most (53%) had actually heard of, with nearly a quarter (23%) actually making them.

 

Recipe - Social media views* -I’ve made it myself

 

Hasselback potatoes 44m 23%

 

Baked oats 26.9m 20%

 

Baked feta 51.5m 15%

 

Pasta chips 59.9m 15%

 

Soufflé pancakes 103m 14%

 

Pesto eggs 55.7m 13%

 

Pancake cereal 84.7m 12%

 

Cloud bread 214m 12%

 

Dalgona coffee 106.5m 11%

 

Gardenscape focaccia 9.6m 11%

 

*views on TikTok and YouTube at date of research

 

Eggs – how do you like them?

 

Eggs are enjoying an unlikely revival.

 

Once dismissed as unhealthy and full of cholesterol, they fell from favour, with fears of salmonella only increasing their unpopularity in the late 1980s. But in recent years, nutritionists have highlighted them as an excellent source of protein and millennials have embraced their versatility. Coddled, cloud, confit or curried – eggs are now often the star on restaurant menus. ‘Eggs’ even beats ‘Avocado’ as a hashtag on Instagram. Brits now eat 12.9 billion eggs a year, up by 3 billion since 2006 – but how do you like to eat them…? Scrambled comes top of the list, followed by fried and then poached. However, people aged 55-64 prefer poached, along with those living in the South West, while those aged 18-24 and those in the North East choose fried as their favourite.

 

Scrambled 22%

 

Fried 20%

 

Poached 19%

 

Omelette 14%

 

Boiled 8%

 

Baked 3%

 

Coddled 2%

 

How our kitchens turned into coffee shops

 

In 2020, the number of coffee shops in London fell for the first time in two decades. Lockdowns and the working from home boom meant that people were no longer asking their local barista for a flat white or a latte to start their day. But drinking coffee hasn’t fallen from favour. Far from it. Many consumers are now opting to get their caffeine fix at home, but not with a quick instant in the morning. Lakeland’s coffee machine sales are up by 24% compared to 2019, highlighting people’s desire to create barista-quality coffee in their own homes. It’s no surprise then that our at-home coffee consumption has significantly increased – according to Mintel, the amount of coffee Brits drank at home increased by 11.3% year-on-year in 2020 to 79 million kilos. That’s nearly 3 kilos of coffee for every household in the UK. The coffee machine has even become our favourite kitchen gadget. Back in 2018, Lakeland’s trends report revealed the nation’s favourite was the slow cooker. Now it’s the coffee machine, which is possibly proof that people increasingly see their kitchens not just as somewhere to cook, but also as a place to sit, work and sip on a cappuccino – their café at home.

 

 

A passion for home-brewed coffee is particularly pronounced among the younger generation and men. In total, 13% of people say that “making coffee is an art”, rising to 18% for men and 20% for those aged 18 to 44.

 

More than a quarter of Londoners (26%) say making coffee is an art – three times the proportion of those living in the East Midlands, North East, South East and South West.

 

But coffee habits among the young are very divided. Though one in five of those aged 18 to 24 think coffee making is an art, 23% don’t drink coffee at all – far higher than the average across all ages, which is 14%. Gen-Z either take their coffee very seriously, or they don’t drink it at all.

 

A quarter of the population prefer instant coffee, but again this depends heavily on the age of the consumer.

 

Just one in ten of 18 to 24 year olds drink instant, but it’s nearly four in ten (37%) of those aged 65 and over. Those who do drink coffee like it milky. Three of the top four most popular styles of coffee involve milk, with latte the most popular brew. Though, interestingly, there is a gender divide. Women’s strong preference for latte pushes it to the number one slot, but men opt for a cappuccino as their favourite, followed by an Americano. And men are almost twice as likely to choose an espresso as women are. Despite the huge boom in non-dairy milk, this is not a popular option, with just 2% of coffee drinkers saying it’s their favourite. In the capital, not surprisingly, oat and soya lattes are a bit more popular, with 5% of Londoners opting to ditch dairy.

 

Glorious gizmos

 

Part of Lakeland’s success, and one of the reasons it has a band of such devoted fans, are the gadgets it sells. Alongside the important kitchen appliances such as coffee machines, kettles, mixers and food processors are a range of more niche products like mango slicers, tea bag strainers and crumpet rings. Think of a fruit and Lakeland probably has a gadget that can de-stone it, core it, preserve it or cook it. To the uninitiated, a banana guard may look more like a weapon of torture than a useful storage device, but to those who have been won over, it’s a lifesaver – a contraption that protects Britain’s most popular fruit from becoming bruised in your lunch box. If you are coring a pineapple, won’t a sharp knife do the trick? Perhaps. But for some people, a pineapple corer is a device that can transform the act from something arduous (and prickly!) into something effortless.

 

How do you remove the tea bag from the mug? Most might use a teaspoon, but 15% of people rely on their trusty tea bag strainer. Meanwhile, 14% of people would be lost without their toast tongs; 49% of people who claim they’d never use this device are obviously lucky enough to never have had a hot cross bun caught in the depths of their toaster...

 

56% Use a pizza slicer all the time

 

15% Use a tea bag strainer all the time

 

14% Use toast tongs all the time

 

Ditching the diet for healthy eating

 

With five of the top 10 cookery books this year being diet related, you might think Brits were obsessed about following a strict regime: fasting, keto, paleo. All these have become very popular hashtags on social media, with #keto and #paleo ranking higher than #avocado or #eggs on Instagram, for instance.

 

But while these diets may get all the buzz, how many people are actually choosing to adopt them?

 

Not many. According to Lakeland’s survey, just 6% have taken on a specific diet plan this year. But though the huge majority haven’t “gone on a diet”, they have attempted to eat more healthily. A substantial six in ten people said they were attempting to modify their eating habits to be healthier.

 

The most popular two methods involve making positive, healthier choices – eating more vegetables (55% of people said they were doing this) and eating more fruit (53%). After that, cutting back on fats (43%) and carbohydrates (40%) were the two next options.

 

Men and women are taking very similar steps to each other, though men are twice as likely to say that they are trying to eat more fermented foods as women, while women are more likely to say they are cutting back on takeaways.

 

Whether you are determined to reduce your alcohol intake depends heavily on your age. Well over a quarter (28%) of those aged 55-64 say they are trying to cut back on the booze, but just one in ten of those aged 25 to 34, and 11% of those aged 18-24.

 

55% Ate more vegetables

 

53% Ate more fruit

 

43% Cut back on fats

 

40% Cut back on Carbohydrates

 

Meal Kits

 

Lockdown changed how a lot of us ate. Stuck at home, more and more of us embraced cooking from scratch, as well as ordering more takeaways during 2020 and 2021. One particular trend that seems to have really taken off combines both of the above: home delivery recipe kits. Lakeland’s survey suggests that 22%, or potentially 14.8 million people, used them in the last year.

 

You want to cook a meal from scratch or try out a new recipe, but you don’t have the time to go out and source all the ingredients – meal kits promise to solve this problem. Typically sent out in boxes, with a recipe card and all the ingredients handily weighed out for you, the handful of big companies already offering this service saw demand explode during the lockdowns of the last 18 months.

 

Interestingly, meal kits found particular favour with experienced home cooks, with 26% of those who cook five or six days a week from scratch signing up to a service.

 

Is the trend here to stay? Yes. Nearly one in eight (79%) say they will continue to use recipe kits. Those under the age of 45 particularly seem to enjoy meal kits, with 84% saying they’ll stick with them. Men were the biggest fans, with nine in ten insisting they will continue to buy them.

 

Those who were less convinced (particularly those aged 45 or older) cited price as the main reason why they had decided not to carry on ordering meal kits.

 

The rise of the air fryer

 

Not since the slow cooker or the spiralizer has a new piece of kitchen kit come along that’s generated quite such a buzz as the air fryer. Safer, less messy and far healthier than a deep fat fryer, they have captured the imagination of a generation super-keen on crunchy, fried food but not so wild on the calories. Most air fryers allow you to cook chips or fried chicken with just a fraction of the oil you would use in a traditional deep fat fryer – simply coat your ingredients in a small amount of oil before ‘frying’. Lakeland first started selling air fryers in 2007 with the original Tefal® Actifry, which was exclusive to Lakeland for nearly a year and a half and the first of its kind on the market. The success of air frying led the Lakeland team up in Cumbria to develop their own model, which arrived on the shelves in 2017.

 

And frying habits are clearly changing – back in 2007, customers were buying one air fryer for every deep fat fryer.

 

But in the last year that has changed to four air fryers for every one deep fat fryer sold, with sales of the appliances doubling since 2018. According to Lakeland’s survey, an air fryer is the nation’s fifth most used gadget, used more often than a bread maker, pressure cooker or stand mixer. Among 18 to 24 year olds it’s the second most used kitchen gadget. The only gadget they turn to more frequently is a set of kitchen scales. Its soaring popularity, especially among young cooks, has been helped in recent years by various influencers discovering its versatility and posting videos on TikTok. These videos highlight how you can use an air fryer to quickly cook anything from pasta chips – a recipe that went viral – to steaks, asparagus, artichoke hearts, bananas and even hard-boiled eggs. With one of the top recipes on TikTok being air-fried Brussels sprouts, we wonder if anyone will be using their air fryer to cook Christmas dinner?

 

Is this cheating?

 

We all have them in our cupboard or freezer: cheats. Pre-chopped or pre-mixed ingredients that save home cooks crucial time and hassle. In the past, even Delia Smith has recommended frozen mashed potato and tinned lamb, and Nigella Lawson says you can use shop-bought pancakes for Crêpes Suzette. But for every person who swears by pre-crushed garlic or grated cheese in a packet, there will be another who says resorting to such cheats is sacrilegious. In this time-poor age, which are the godsends and which are just a step too far? To work this out, we asked people which ingredients they use all of the time, which they use occasionally, and which they would never use. Based on the results, we created a scoring system, and the results are in…

 

Godsends:

 

• Stock cubes
• Frozen prepared fruit and veg
• Ready-made sauces

 

Step too far:

 

• Pre-mashed potato
• Pre-made white sauce
• Ready-made pancakes

 

Have we turned our gardens into outdoor kitchens?

 

If you read certain headlines, those lucky enough to have a garden have eaten, studied, played and slept outside during the past 18 months. A desire for fresh air, combined with working from home, has meant our gardens have doubled up as our kitchens, lounges and playrooms.

 

Lakeland’s survey, however, suggests this isn’t the whole picture. Overall, 31% said they had eaten outdoors more in 2021 compared to 2019, whereas 30% have eaten alfresco less. It’s hardly very conclusive. But, it differs enormously according to age. Those 45 and older have spent less time eating outdoors, while those aged 44 and younger have enjoyed dining in their garden a lot more.

 

And though we may not be eating significantly more meals outside, we have splashed out on the kit to enjoy those alfresco occasions. A significant 46% have bought themselves some sort of outdoor cooking kit, be it a standard barbecue (31%) or something far more fancy, such as a Green Egg or other Kamado oven (7%), which allow you to slow cook large joints of meat. A small, but significant, number of consumers have splashed out on an entire outdoor kitchen (9%) and/or 2020 & 2021’s hottest cooking trend: an outdoor pizza oven. Lakeland’s survey found an astonishing 14%, or potential 3.8 million households, have invested in one of these. In London, the proportion who have invested in this trendy bit of kit is more than double this at 33%. Those living in the capital are also far more likely to have bought a Green Egg or Kamado oven, with two in ten Londoners having bought one. It would appear people are also quite adventurous with what they’re cooking outside. While burgers and sausages remain the two most common items cooked on the barbecue, 20% are cooking vegetables, and 14% whole fish. Young people in particular have really started to experiment, with a quarter of 25 to 34 year olds cooking pizzas outside, 15% of them baking cheese, roasting bananas on the coals or even attempting to bake cakes on their barbecue. A mere 3% of those over the age of 55 have cooked a whole joint of meat on the barbecue in the last year, but that figure jumps to 17% for those under the age of 35. And though only a very small number of people cook a Christmas meal on their barbecue (4%), 25 to 34 year olds are again far more adventurous, with 11% of this age group saying they have cooked a turkey and the trimmings outside.

 

% of people who have cooked a whole fish on the BBQ in the last year

 

18% North East

 

16% London

 

9% South West

 

Eco living – affected by Covid?

 

The