How did you get into cooking/desserts?

[TheStoryteller1]

I know, this forum is mainly for baking, but I wanted to ask this as well.

As a teenager I was always awful at helping my mom in the kitchen. I burned everything. The only thing I was good at was pancakes and 1 or 2 sweet desserts. 1 of them was Tiramisu, which doesn't even require baking.
About less than a year ago, I moved in with my boyfriend, and since I was on my own finally, and not living in dormitories, I started cooking 1-2 times a week. I thought I would hate it, but it actually became therapeutic and stress-relief. To my surprise, I was GOOD at it.

But still, to this day, desserts always come the easiest to me. May be because I have a sweet tooth, or may be because of all the decoration involved, which I love
How about you, what is your story? How did you start baking? What do you like about it?

 

[True2marie]

I got into baking because of my mother. She made a lot of baked goods from scratch like cakes, cookies and breads. When I was a little girl, she began to slowly introduce me to this art. I started off with a simple cake and graduated into more complicated foods.

 

[Josie]

I got into baking because of my grandmother. I absolutely LOVE to cook meals, but there's just something yummier about a desserts presentation. baking was my first love though and I think it was the love that got me hooked. My grandmother spent so much time in the kitchen cooking and baking for us and so much love and attention went into every last creation. She really made it wonderful for me and I hope I make it just as wonderful for my own family. I must.. they've been hooked too

 

[TheViper]

I got into baking because of my mom. She taught me several recipes and I was always around her in the kitchen. The time with her in the kitchen is probably one of my favorite memories.

 

[MyDigitalpoint]

When I was younger I was sweets devoted, and that pushed me to start cooking desserts mainly throughout my teen years, time by which I used to bake different cakes on a weekly basis and try different recipes as well.

Today I'm not very prone to sweets, but I like to cooking desserts from time to time.

 

[Christine Mlinek]

I always liked sweets and to look at desserts and think, I want to try this or that. My mother was not much of a baker, only one or two items, but my real passion for baking came along gradually, then fervently, and now I cannot go a weekend without doing something with baking. I just enjoy it... trying to come up with different flavors, experimenting.... it is relaxing for me.

 

[TheStoryteller1]

I always liked sweets and to look at desserts and think, I want to try this or that. My mother was not much of a baker, only one or two items, but my real passion for baking came along gradually, then fervently, and now I cannot go a weekend without doing something with baking. I just enjoy it... trying to come up with different flavors, experimenting.... it is relaxing for me.

It relaxes me too. I usually plan and worry a lot, but when I am cooking, I just seem to forget all of that, and just concentrate on each part of what I'm preparing.
My mom was a great baker, but she is somewhat of an artist- and she cooks with a little bit of this, a little bit of that. There was never an exact recipe. That frustrated me before, because I knew nothing of cooking and I wanted detailed instructions...and now I am starting to cook in that way.

 

[mommy42]

I wasn't into it much until I moved out on my own and had to learn so I could eat!!
I too prefer baking to cooking. I love sweets too! And maybe because baking is easier! I also seem to be better at it than cooking.
I'm not bad at cooking - just better at baking it seems! ;-)
I did learn to bake at a young age though - we always had chocolate chip cookies in the house and that is what I remember most about baking.
I still make them today and my kids ask for them constantly!

 

[janineaa]

I didn't exactly help my mother in the kitchen whenever she cooked for us. When I was in college and lived in my own apartment, there was a huge oven that was never used. I thought I'd take advantage of it, so I bought ingredients and trays for baking and started from there! I guess I enjoyed and loved how my first batch of brownies turned out. Since then, I experimented more!

 

[JGPangi]

Funny enough, I got into cooking and baking because I was studying to be a chef. Before that I just usually cooked home food and I was never really good at it, mostly because I thought it just involved too much work. When I started studying about it though, my interest piqued to a whole new level. I was able to be more skillful in the kitchen, which meant I was faster with a knife, which meant that what was too much work before became a breeze for me.

Chefs themselves mostly don't do any cooking when they come home, because they've been cooking all day and just want to put their feet up before having a shower. When I resigned from the hotel, I wanted to try every recipe I could get my hands on and I haven't looked back since.

 

[Shortbread92]

I got into baking kind of by accident. I had already liked to cook but I didn't do much baking of desserts. As I did more of it I realized that I liked it. People would compliment me and tell me how much they liked the cake, cookie, etc. I like to see people smile and enjoy the food I cook so I did more. I haven't stopped since. I guess the rest is history.

 

[torreyy]

I know, this forum is mainly for baking, but I wanted to ask this as well.

As a teenager I was always awful at helping my mom in the kitchen. I burned everything. The only thing I was good at was pancakes and 1 or 2 sweet desserts. 1 of them was Tiramisu, which doesn't even require baking.
About less than a year ago, I moved in with my boyfriend, and since I was on my own finally, and not living in dormitories, I started cooking 1-2 times a week. I thought I would hate it, but it actually became therapeutic and stress-relief. To my surprise, I was GOOD at it.

But still, to this day, desserts always come the easiest to me. May be because I have a sweet tooth, or may be because of all the decoration involved, which I love
How about you, what is your story? How did you start baking? What do you like about it?

I got into baking in high school, 11th grade. I needed elective classes because I already had all my credits to graduate. It was a choice of Foods Pre-Labs I&II or WoodShop I& II. Decided on Foods and the rest is history..

 

[ACSAPA]

I grew up poor and my mother didn't cook. I got into baking in my 20's when my daughter was a baby because I wanted to give her a great childhood with a mother that baked and paid attention to her kid. I did a lot of domestic things to be the opposite of my mother and give my kid a good childhood. I found out by accident that I'm good at baking and gardening.

 

[kammy]

For me it's more like a heritage as my grandma was a great cook and baker and so is my mom, so i am like always in the kitchen from a tender age and this was something i enjoyed immensely so it somewhat became a part of me.

 

[Ellyn]

My mother's old manservant used to cook for us. I was always powerfully curious about how a bunch of ingredients that didn't seem to be like a final meal on their own, could become... a lemon meringue pie, or apple pie, or loukomades. With non-desserts, the shape of the thing was usually obvious: add heat, pink meat turns brown, greens turn greener. Same shape, obviously the same thing. But desserts were really a transformation, at least to me when I was very young.

And of course there's my sweet tooth.