Let them eat cake.

Seasons still bugs gardening, and how many years has that been?

I was away for a couple of years, and then I did a first-time install, no mods, and tried to run it.  It broke.  It took two different pieces of advices from heroes in this forum for me to be able to play the game.

This is a ten-year-old game.  How can they not be running acceptance tests before updates?

leo1225  Please use these bug threads for the issues with baking cakes and aging up:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-ECO-Excessive-White-Cakes-NAP-Active/td-p/10052572
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/NEEDS-SAVES-Teenager-don-t-get-third-trait-on-aging-no/td-p/11749122

For the crashing/freezing, please provide more details.  Do you get stuck on an infinite loading screen, or something else?  Is it different when the game is loading a new lot than when you're doing something else?

Please also provide a dxdiag.  Hit Windows key-R, enter dxdiag in the run box, wait for the scan to finish, click "Save all information," and save the file to your desktop.  From there, you can attach it to a reply using the camera (Insert Media) icon included with the other formatting buttons.

leo1225Check your Neighborhood Action Plans (N.A.P.) if you have Eco Lifestyle. Everyone making white cake is a common effect of the Foodies Unite N.A.P. Repeal the N.A.P. to put a stop to it. Here's what the game says about doing that under Lessons for Eco Lifestyle. 

If a N.A.P is active that you don't like or your Sim would like to enjoy a change of scenery, your Sim always has the right to Petition to Repeal any active Plan in their neighborhood. 

A Repeal takes a little work. In order to successfully repeal an active N.A.P., Sims must successfully Ask for Repeal Signature from 5 other Sims before the current voting period closes. 

Cheats provide a much easier method. Open the cheat console using Ctrl-Shift-C, enter testingCheats on, then Shift-click on the mailbox and Instant Repeal Neighborhood Action Plan (Cheat). You can turn the cheats back off, if you want, with testingCheats off.