Like we learn in the Disney movie Ratatouille, anyone can cook. The same goes for baking, though most people are scared to even try. That's were I come in. Baking may seem like something only professionals can do, but I'm here to prove to you that you can bake. Here you will learn about what exactly goes into baking some of your favorite pastries, including bread, macarons, and cakes. From the technicalities of the science of baking, to methods, you'll be able to find enough information here to get a start on your baking journey!
Baking is an art, and not everyone is the artistic type. Unlike actual art, where natural talent does contribute to the "success" of a piece of art, baking can be learned. But not overnight. No one learns to write in cursive just by looking at some cursive writing, and the same goes for baking. It takes time and practice, and thankfully practice is easy. There are a plethora of recipes out there on the internet for anyone to use, so it's easy to find one that is simple enough to get you started. Other than gathering your ingredients, it's that simple! All you have to do is follow the directions and BOOM! You've just baked something! Next thing you know, you've moved on to more difficult things, like a layered cake with a ganache filling. It's all about learning as you go; what kind of mixing you should do to produce a light and fluffy cake or how long to cream together your butter and sugar to get the perfect texture for a chocolate chip cookie. And the more you practice, the better you will become.
"But Kathleen," I can hear you say in my mind as I write this, "I've never been good at baking. My cookies come out like rocks, and my cake is always too dry. I just can't learn how to bake." BALDERDASH. Were you good the first time you tried to play a sport you love? Or even in the first year of playing? Of course not! Did you learn how to tie your shoes on the first attempt? No! But did you stick with it and keep practicing until you could tie your shoes or could do some fancy sports maneuvers(no judgement please, I was a cook not an athlete)? Yes you did! Why? Because you wanted to learn. the first step in getting better at anything is wanting to get better, and thats all that you need to bake! I'll be quite honest, the very first thing I ever baked was a batch of peanut butter cookies. I was about 10, and as any 10 year old, I wasn't super focused on what the instructions were telling me, and I accidentally added too much salt to the cookies. When my dad, who is a HUGE peanut butter cookie fan, tried them, he politely told me that they were a touch salty. Of course, they were disgustingly salty, and I still love that he put on a brave face for me as to not put me off of baking forever. But, the moral of this is that I wasn't good at the start. Hell, I was down right awful. But, because I had a want to learn how to bake, I kept baking until I could make those cookies in my sleep. So that's what I want you to keep in mind as you navigate through this site, all you have to do is set your mind to it, and you'll be surprised at the results.