It conjures up old-fashioned images of grey-ing country ladies in aprons, but the new crowd at show cooking competitions is getting younger - and increasingly male.
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The Royal Canberra Show is on this weekend, with more than 100 categories from cake decorating and baking, to vegetables, preserves and home-grown eggs all on display in the Harvest Hall.
Competitor Kirsty Reiter, from Ngunnawal, baked with her grandmother growing up, but it wasn't until her early thirties that she got involved in show baking.
"I used to go to the Canberra Show and we always looked at the cookery exhibits. I remember going a couple of times and looking at the cakes and thinking 'I could do better than that'," she said.
"I'd think, 'I'll enter next year' and I never did. But then I went one year and saw there were only three entries, and I though, 'well they all got a prize card'."
Now in her late 30s, Ms Reiter is about to compete for her sixth year and said entering was "addictive". She has had particular success with her sponge cakes over the years, and also enjoys the carrot and banana cake categories.
Over the years she has noticed more and more younger competitors - "particularly around the 30 to 40 age group, and there are certainly a lot of men entering now which is great to see".
This year at the Royal Canberra Show Ms Reiter is entering a huge 18 classes across cakes, biscuits and slices, and took leave from work to get everything prepared.
"There's not a lot of prize money. But first, second, third and highly commended you get a prize card. I keep all of mine from over the years in an album at home," she said.
"And it's ridiculous but getting those prize cards and seeing your little name on the cake at the show - it's a nice little rush and validates what you do."
Competing is a complete family affair for the Reynolds family, of Fraser.
Loryn Reynolds is in her late-thirties and a third generation competitor, who has competed for the better part of 32 years. Her and her mother, Merran Hunter, are both also stewards at this year's Royal Canberra Show, and they have both judged before at other shows
These days her whole family is involved, including husband Paul and daughters Ruby, 5, and Poppy, 3 (10-month old daughter May is still a bit young). This year the family is entering a wide range of categories, including cakes, decorated biscuits, and their home-grown vegetables and eggs from their chickens.
The Royal Canberra Show has a men's only cake category each year in the baking section - this year it's a carrot cake - to try and encourage more men to enter, which is how Mr Reynolds first competed.
"The first year he only entered in the men's section, and he was the champion cake of the show. And now he enters the men's one but just because it's there, but he tends to enter the other sections. Now we use the men's section as a challenge with other mates, so it gets other guys involved," Ms Reynolds said.
"It's definitely evolving. There's certainly more young people coming through, and a lot of the school's enter as well so kids get a taste for it."
The Royal Canberra Show is on February 23-25 at Exhibition Park.
