I have been wanting to learn how to bake for a while now, I would really enjoy to know how to prepare things so that I can take to parties, events, barbecues and overall gatherings. But knowing me, learning to bake something will be a long and hard process! So I was looking to see what I want to learn first. I want to see if I'm actually capable of baking something, and when I get at least decent at it I can venture into other stuff. Do you bake? What is easier to learn how to prepare, cookies or cupcakes?
I bake often and like baking cookies the most because they tend to hold up better over a week than cupcakes do. But I would start with cupcakes as you ease yourself into baking. I bake from scratch but for one of your first hurrahs into baking world I think you should use a boxed mix, it's so easy and will get you really comfortable with it--plus the boxed mixes aren't too bad these days.
Baking is easy, I did it myself yesterday! (Orange muffins with dried cranberries, my parents loved them.) Just follow the recipe and make sure you take them out of the oven at the right time with pot holders or oven mitts so you don't burn your hands. You'll be fine with whatever you decide to make. I believe in you!
Baking cookies are more difficult for me than baking cupcakes. I have a small kitchen and we don't have a separate kitchen for baking, which I think is what needs to be done. We do need some space when making dough, working on the shapes, decorating them, and the normal kitchen is not enough space to be honest.
Cookies and cupcakes, are both pretty easy. Cookies can be more difficult, but it depends on what types of cookie you're making like, a sugar cookie or a gingersnap. If you do a sugar cookie wrong they "melt" and if you do a gingersnap wrong, they will literally become a rock. Cupcakes are fairly easy in making and baking, it's the decorating that can be tough. A LOT of people, myself included sometimes, fail to let the cupcake completely cool be attempting to decorate it. That's probably the most important thing in cupcake decorating and general cake decorating too! Start with box mixes and work your way up to cooking from scratch.
Baking is less about measuring things out in cups & teaspoons & more about measuring things by weight. A baker friend of mine taught me the ignorance of my ways. She noticed, when I was making 200 cookies for an event, that each batch of 20 tasted a tad differently. I told her I freestyle but I knew secretly that I followed that darn recipe to the letter. She already knew & told me to buy a scale. After that I had uniformed cookies day & night. So, that's the tip I leave you with.
I can't bake to save my life, but it's definitely something I wish I could do. Like JoanMcWench, I just don't have the patience to measure out stuff and stick religiously to the recipe. I think I've only ever attempted to bake twice in my life, and both times the cake sank in the middle! I might try again, but maybe start with something as basic as cookies.
Based on experience, I would say cookies are much easier to bake. They are also quick to bake and ideal for occasions when you don't have enough time to spare. I'm all right with cupcakes but I'm bad at putting on icing. My hands tend to shiver. If you follow the Pillsbury recipe book, you'd find yourself baking cookies in less than an hour.
Definitely cookies since you don't need the cake mix to rise and become fluffy, and bother with the icing later. I mean you can even eat cookie dough without baking, it's really a simple matter of mixing all the ingredients together and then baking it in an oven.
