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This is Highly Recommend, a column dedicated to what people in the food industry are eating, drinking, and buying right now. Here, Kat Thompson writes about the video game that provides all the joy of baking with none of the cleanup.
If you were afforded 20 hours of free time, how would you spend it? Some things I can think of off the top of my head: make a truly epic Bolognese sauce, attempt chocolate croissants, take a well-deserved nap, or paint an accent wall (these are all things on my to-do list). What did I do with 20 hours instead? I played a lot of Lemon Cake.
Lemon Cake is a baking simulator game developed by Cozy Bee Games. The premise is simple: You are a baker attempting to restore a run-down bakery haunted by the previous owner, a charming ghost who longs to see the space restored to its former glory. You begin your quest learning simple recipes, like baguettes and chocolate chip cookies, serving customers throughout the day while making sure your baking space is clean and nothing is accidentally overbaked. In life and in Lemon Cake, time management is key.
As your bakery’s popularity grows, so do your resources. With money coming in, you can buy fruit trees, raise chickens and cows for eggs and milk, and even invest in a magical broom that cleans up spills in the kitchen (something I desperately want IRL). There are more challenging recipes to tackle, like cherry biscotti and blueberry cheesecakes, and you can even purchase a freezer that churns out vanilla soft serve and grape ice pops. Learning how to craft new treats is so compulsively rewarding it keeps my fingers on the joysticks. Customers flock for egg bread and sweet pretzels, and the more you bake and perfect a recipe, the higher your score and tips. All of this leads up to the pinnacle recipe: a perfect lemon cake, our ghostly co-owner’s favorite treat.
Baking is my happy place. Cleaning up, however, is a drag and what keeps me from baking constantly. Lemon Cake is an ideal solution. I still achieve the same joy and sense of accomplishment maintaining my bakery without the hassle of physically baking. I even look forward to the mini game in Lemon Cake in which you have to kill bugs attempting to infiltrate your kitchen—just like in real bakeries! The game reminds me of the inviting atmosphere of The Great British Bake-Off, which provides viewers with the thrill, challenges, and triumphs of baking without having to actually bake. It’s easy to move on from failing a recipe in Lemon Cake, unlike my heartbreaking attempts at perfecting French macarons.
The downside to this, of course, is the lack of treats. The cartoony desserts in Lemon Cake definitely make me hungry, but as I’m nearing a 24-hour cycle devoted solely to this game, my home kitchen has never been quieter or cleaner. I just want to make my ghost friend proud—and perhaps once I beat the game, I can start baking again with renewed enthusiasm.