Wherever in the world you are right now, you must have noticed supermarkets and grocery stores are running short in baking materials since people have found a new pastime: baking.

They bake everything at home: from bread to cakes, cookies, you name it.

Cooking videos are going viral, flour and baking powder are hard to find in the baking aisle, and everyone’s wondering why this is happening.

Have we always had little Gordon Ramsays inside us just waiting to be revealed, or is there another explanation?

“There seems to be a shared cultural value around cooking, baking that is coming out now — it’s normally sort of buried in our busy economic industrial society,” explains Karen Bates, who is studying the relationship between traditional skills and resilience as part of her master’s degree in environmental education.

According to Bates, there are two reasons why people are baking so eagerly during the quarantine.

First, because it proves that food really is part of our global culture and now it is the time to sit back and enjoy it.

Second, she explains that in times like these, people realize they are not masters of this earth. On the contrary, there are things that you can’t even see- like this current deadly virus- that can take us all down.

In light of this realization, man seeks to reconnect with the natural way of living and, it seems, cooking has this power to reconnect people with natural living systems.

Having said that, it is now obvious that people will keep baking like crazy for as long as we are asked to stay at home. Now, there are lots of blogs, sites, Instagram accounts, and YouTube videos that offer plenty of cute recipes.

But we think we have come across the best baking idea ever.

Japanese bakery, Nekoneko Shokupan, has been selling cat-shaped bread, and the Japanese are going absolutely crazy about it.

It’s not only about the shape, they say, but also about the “pillow-like softness” that is hard to find.

Nekoneko Shokupan opened its Tokyo store in November 2019 and, since then, they have sold freshly-baked cat-shaped loaves that come out every hour.

Also, they serve individually packaged slices for those who can’t finish a whole loaf.

The slightly sweet bread they serve comes in various flavors, from plain to chocolate, berries, and more.

The bad news is that they only sell their bread in Japan, so unless you travel there- and at the moment this sounds like a distant thought- you can’t taste the original cat-shaped bread.

However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t make it at home.

You can join all those home cooks who have been baking non-stop all this time and start baking your own cat loaves, following the recipe below.

All you need extra is a cat-shaped loaf pan, but don’t worry, you can even cut out a cat shape before serving your delicious home-made Shokupan!

Whether you decide to make the bread or not, it is really cute to think that someone decided to make these uniquely shaped loaves. We love them!

If you’d like to try your hand at some catty bread, be sure to watch the video below.

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Source: Bored Panda, CBC, Gaijinpot, Instagram