Cookie craze rises as show season arrives

This content is part of a paid partnership with Google to promote Google Trends. Victorians appear to be dusting off the mixing bowls as agricultural show season gets under way across the state, with online searches for baking recipes surging in recent weeks. Google Trends data for Victoria shows recipe searches for cookies, cakes, pastries, scones, and cupcakes all lifting during late September and early October. Cookies remain the runaway favourite, generating substantially more search interest than any other baked category and recording two major spikes during the period. The trend coincides with the start of Victoria's agricultural shows opening their judging, when hundreds of home cooks turn their attention to competitions ranging from sponge cakes and slices to biscuits, muffins and scones. With the Euroa Ag' Show landing on 24-25 October, competition in the baking pavilion could be fiercer than ever. If the search data is anything to go by, ovens have been running hot as competitors prepare entries. The figures come as Euroa's own baking contingent enjoyed success at the recent Melbourne Royal Show, where local entrants Lorraine Mawson and Teagan Kubeil collected multiple awards across a range of categories, despite not entering any of the popular searches' selection. Perhaps the secret to their success is to not run with the crowd, but tailor something unique. While Google searches do not reveal who is doing the baking, they may provide a clue that this year's cooking judges can expect no shortage of entries in the days ahead. This article uses Google Trends data to explore search interest in baking across Victoria. Google Trends data is aggregated and anonymous. Search interest is measured on a relative scale and does not represent total search volume.