It’s hard to encapsulate and boil down the traits of the different generations into desserts, but we went ahead and did that anyway. Imagine a world where desserts were alive and they ruled the world with metropolises of their own; it sure would be a fun world to be in! Candies and chocolate are fun and so is this article as we turn the pages in history from the ‘greatest generation’ who are mostly gone today to the baby alphas who somehow seem to be turning out just fine despite the calamitous world of today.
This GI generation is something of a novelty, and almost a relic of the past today.. We’d like to call them the awakening of the ‘collective consciousness’ of the generation, where they realized they existed and were too busy fumbling in survival mode (World War II was raging at their time). So, they are the ‘greatest’ ones who pass on their issues to the next generations who silently stew in the traumas of their predecessors and ancestors. A Victorian Sponge Cake is a fitting dessert for them as it originated in their formative years and given that resources were scarce, this sponge cake makes the best use of what’s available. A little tea cake makes even the grumpiest wrinkly person crack a toothless smile.
More like the silent sufferers who were born post the Greatest Generation and lived in their shadow, shouldering the ravages of wars and heartbreaks. They are/were conformists and also existed in survival mode even though they were aware of what was right from wrong. Most of them were busy making their progeny who would be born into an uncertain world. A comforting Christmas staple for these little survival soldiers—a plum cake that is rich in prunes. The rich, dark color of the cake evokes a sense of their hidden burdens and unspoken emotions, aligning with their tendency to keep things bottled up. The cake holds its shape despite the heavy filling, just like the Silent Generation endured considerable hardship with quiet resilience.
This generation begs the question—to sympathize or not to sympathize, for they definitely knew better. As the war ended, birth rates spiked in the West and this generation as they grew up shouldered the responsibility of building a new tomorrow that their successors would enjoy. They did that while wreaking havoc when it came to their personal lives and how a workplace should be. You can’t have everything, but you can definitely try is something a Boomer would say while shifting blame to their predecessors. So, we give them a mud cake, which is comforting but at the same time a pit of despair that they refuse to address. We can totally imagine a boomer looking down their hyperopic eyes and squinting at this article.
This generation is a casualty of the Boomers, some probably spouses or younger siblings to the Boomers, we can only imagine their suffering. Jokes aside, not much is known about them given the intense friction between the Boomer parents and their annoyed children, the millennials. However, they are known to be independent and family-centric and tend to be the favorite aunt or uncle in the family. Technically, this would be describing a wine aunt who has a mysterious life, and yet always shows up and social events. So a brownie for the cool generation who has had it slightly better than the Boomers and invented the world coolness.
The millennials were the first ones to ride the internet wave and were able to tame it without looking like a fool. They were also the ones, who still are, aggressive bakers and ruling the food hashtags on social media. So, a loaf of banana bread for the baking baes of the digital space who continue to challenge the status quo and are tired of the legacy of trauma and workplace terrors left to them by the Boomers. Millennials will tell everyone to chill but refuse to take their own advice, so to those millennials, grab those rotting bananas and get down to baking the delicious banana bread and chill for a change.
Add in chaotic energy and a big scoop of existential dread, you have Generation Z or Gen Z. You cannot poke fun at them, they already have roasted themselves way better than the bitter roasts of coffee. If you go lower, they will find another bar that is below that. All the demented humor on the internet that will make you question people’s sanity, is their doing. A fruit crumble is messy and fuss-free and is their dessert soulmate, for this reason.
This generation is still mostly babies but already making their mark on the internet, their humor might be a bit more organized and wittier than the chaotic GenZs. They are sorted as their predecessors Gen Z and Millenials sort out their sanity and the meaning of life. So a good old donut that can be customized in any flavor and toppings that represents the open-mindedness of this generation. We can hope that this generation is kinder and struggles less, much like the effortless donuts.