How did you learn to bake?

[lizby1]

I have started watching the repeat of the Great British bake off - am already hooked.
I have always been a slap dash cook, good at stews, curries, the sort of thing that can cook for ages and don't need to be timed precisely.
I have wanted to learn to bake for awhile. I am a bit scared I'll eff up though.
How did you learn to bake bread and cakes? Any particularly good books? Taught by other half/parent?

[elora]

My mum is a baker so I've always been around it either helping or getting in the way.

Most of the recipes come from her but a few are from magazines - not much of a cookbook person, although i do love ones with pretty pictures. I really need to see what I am making.

Mum does drive me a bit crazy though because sometimes she'll answer a question with a handful or until it looks right. (my gorilla hand or your dainty one?) (oh, if i knew what it should look like I wouldn't have called you!) Best part is that you can usually still eat your mistakes.

My biggest problem is my husband doesn't eat sweet stuff so I don't bake as much I might like to. (I work from home so I can't even take stuff in to work!)

[lillielangtry]

Partly from my mum - she is not a particularly keen baker as she doesn't have a sweet tooth, but she always made me a birthday cake and a fruit cake at Christmas - partly from school. We had HE (home economics) and I always really enjoyed the practical lessons. I'm by no means an expert and I'm certainly not an artistic decorator but I can make basic cakes, muffins, biscuits and so on which turn out fine and I like doing it.

[mei]

I haven't. I can do a few things (muffins) but usually everything else I try never seems to turn out quite right.

my dad's a chef cook, but he doesn't bake so I've never had good examples.

[lizby1]

I don't have a sweet tooth but would like to make things for the boys. They both have a sweet tooth and I'd rather they didn't have shop bought stuff with additives.
It's hard knowing what the mixtures should look like if you haven't seen it being done.

[Deleted]

Dreadful baker! Absolutely dreadful.

I'd love to be better though.

[Tulipana]

It's a fund show isn't it? I loved the Dutch version.

I did some basic baking in my old place (which had a teeny tiny kitchen) and I've been baking a lot more since we've moved here. I started with easy things like muffins, quiches and brioche. Recently I've started woth more difficult things like cinnamon swirl bread and focaccia. The trick is not to be in a hurry, baking takes time.

I get my recipes from blogs and Pinterest mostly.

The hair bikers are also a great source for recipes (also a great BBC show I think!)

[whortleberry]

I love baking. I guess I learned from my mother, mostly.

If you search blogs for baking, a lot of them have step by step photos. That might help you with what it's meant to look like?

[kneazle]

I learnt mostly from my mum but also had Home ec as well where we did some baking - it was there that I learnt to make Chocolate eclairs.

There's an old adage - cook to taste, bake to the recipe and this is especially true when you're starting. I think that baking is a science and an art you have to be exact but there's also something of a flair. My mum is a good cook, good baker but cannot make pastry I find it fairly easy, our old neighbour made the best biscuits - her chocolate chip cookies were the best I've ever tasted.

[Deleted]

I certainly didnt learn from my mum. I learnt a little from my aunt and Home Ec classes, but mostly it just kinda happened.

I tend to use a few websites rather than books these days - iambaker , sprinklebakes , and exclusivelyfood are clear, concise and great bakes!

[lillielangtry]

Dec 31, 2013 13:37:48 GMT -5 lizby1 said:

I don't have a sweet tooth but would like to make things for the boys. They both have a sweet tooth and I'd rather they didn't have shop bought stuff with additives.
It's hard knowing what the mixtures should look like if you haven't seen it being done.

Completely agree, I have that problem when I try to make German Christmas biscuits.

As a start, an all-in-one sponge is incredibly easy providing you have an electric whisk - you literally bung all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk up, no separate creaming of fat and sugar, etc, etc. My family relies on Delia ;-)
www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuisine/european/english/classic-sponge-cake.html

Can also be adapted into a chocolate version with some cocoa, use chocolate butter cream, and voila!

[HalcyonDaze]

Partly from mum and then from home science lessons in high school - we did a fair bit of baking, and I learnt how to make excellent scones at school. Of course, back then it wasn't called home science, just straight cooking, and all we really did was cook, no science or budget or other stuff.

I can bake but tend not to do it too much as I hate the precision.

[wombatrois]

A mixture - grandmother, mother, school home ec classes, worked in kitchens, taught myself!

I tend to bake a lot in winter as an excuse to warm the house, not so much in summer so the house doesn't heat up. My friend bakes all seasons and to walk into her house on a 40 degree day and she's baking a cake is not a pleasant experience. It might be different with air conditioning, but neither of us have it.

I take my cakes to work because with just two of us, a whole cake is too much to get through. My colleagues generally think that's ok :-)

[itch4travel]

I learned from my Mum - one of my earliest memories is standing beside her stirring or kneading bread etc. I love to bake but don't do it as much as I used to - time issues only really. Actually probably a pinch of laziness thrown in but I still prefer homemade over anything. I'm a baking snob. Totally admit it:). Real ingredients. Butter butter and butter.

[lizby1]

I think blogs are a good idea.
I also have Delia's complete cookery course - probably a good place to start.

[Deleted]

Nooooooo, never start with Delia. She's a nightmare!

I've never been able to follow a Delia recipe.

[lizby1]

Funny that, I have always found her recipes foolproof. But I had a disaster with a Nigella recipe once which has scarred me for life!

[Deleted]

LOL, I'm the opposite. I like Nigella, but have never bothered with a Delia. Too much method

[Liiisa]

I learned how to bake a cake from my mom, and how to make cookies from my stepsisters. Other stuff I taught myself - when I came home from college one summer I spent a lot of time with "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," making baguettes and quiches and tarts. Then I got a job as the morning shift cook at a restaurant making quiches, and so I got pretty good at pie crust.

That was in the 1970s so I'm out of practice, though. I hardly bake at all anymore, except for as xmas presents. I prefer homemade too (as itchy says, butter, butter, and more butter), but I can just get a homemade cookie at the farmers market if I want one. (Which is better than me baking 2 dozen of them and then having to resist eating them.)

[brodiebruce]

Had an after school / saturday morning job in a bakery so pretty much unofficially did the first year of a bakery apprenticeship in that time......

[lillielangtry]

My mum and I both had very consistent results with Delia.

[Deleted]

Maybe it's my aversion to technical cooking then

[itch4travel]

Take a look online at Elizabeth Baird - a beloved Canadian (met her a few times you just want to squeeze her) - previously a part of Canadian Living - her recipes are easy and delicious! Rose Murray as well (they've worked together for years) recipes never fail.

This is motivating me to bake again!

[Deleted]

The only trouble with baking is that someone has to eat it!! Not a problem in theory, but in reality..........

[itch4travel]

Actually it makes great gifts for family/friends and neighbours...so you can always have a bit and distribute accordingly. Easier to do that with cookies, squares but with say tea cakes, instead of one big one I make 3 small and gift two! Cake - make cup cakes and share half etc...if you feel you can part with it of course:)

Plus I have what I call a five body freezer but that's because I watch too many murder mysteries. Anyway, I pack up to serve later as well.

[tinaja]

I learned in a US club for kids called 4H. My mom tolerated me in her kitchen. I'm not very good at it basically because I don't treat it as scientifically as I need to. I can whip up bread thought without a recipe.

[Deleted]

Jan 1, 2014 15:06:30 GMT -5 itch4travel said:

Plus I have what I call a five body freezer but that's because I watch too many murder mysteries. Anyway, I pack up to serve later as well.

Hahaha, like it!

[tinier_dragon]

from my mom, from a friend in college, and from books/experimenting.

[leela]

From my grandma. But I rarely bake, because my husband wasn't into cakes etc, and I'd just eat it all. So I got out of the habit.

[lizby1]

I think there are short courses at the local adult education centre.