Does the lot you are playing on has the Simple Living Lot Challenge by any chance? This Challenge makes you require all ingredients to cook a meal, you can turn it off by clicking on the trophy in the Lot Traits UI.
@SwtlyEvil It sounds like removing the 'Simple Living' lot trait was a good idea and worked well for you. 🙌
Just in case this part was unclear from the thread, with the 'Simple Living' lot trait you have specific ingredients that you must have in order to make any particular food, and otherwise it will remain greyed out in options. A cake, for instance, will require the that the refrigerator in the house has the needed ingredients listed when you hover over the item on the list that you want to cook (or the Sim you want to cook it will need the ingredients in their personal inventory).
With the 'Simple Living Lot Trait' active on the lot, to make a White Cake, for instance, your Sim will need one egg, one flour, and one sugar (see screenshot below). The egg can be purchased or from your own hen, but the flour and sugar will need to come from the grocery store.
For example, if I try to direct my Sim to bake a cake that has the ingredients in the refrigerator (such as the Chocolate Cake or White Cake in this example), the options are not greyed out for her because she has the eggs, flour, sugar, and Chocoberry in the refrigerator. However, she has no option to bake a Honey Cake, as there is no honey in the refrigerator, and it is listed as a required ingredient (with the 'Simple Living Lot Trait' active on the lot):
...
But... another Sim on the lot does have honey in her personal inventory, so she also has the 'Honey Cake' option available to her:
