Newbie baker in the house

[Wild Orchid]

Hey there.. I have recently taken up baking after giving in to the inner voice. Inspiration is what I should call it. I had baked on numerous occasions before, but always under the guidance of my mother. Last week was my first baking session alone, stemming from some time and flour that was about to go bad. Some delicious vanilla cupcakes and a ton of fun, were the results. So building on this new-found hobby, I was wondering; are there blogs that you would recommend to a learner? I'm looking for simple recipes for a start, and can perhaps venture into the complex later after 'mastering' the craft . Any advice is welcome.

 

[Winterybella]

Welcome. I am pretty new myself but got a lot of great advice in the forum. If you do some searching around in the forum you will find some great suggestions and links for ideas for beginners under similar threads. That said, I still like to search myself and come up with new things that I can try as well. In the past most of my baking was from a box. That's changing now. Anyway see if you like anything in the link below.

http://idiva.com/photogallery-ifood/recipes-5-basic-cakes-for-beginners/25116

 

[SoonToBeCFP]

Hi there!

When I started baking, I relied on Google and pinterest 99% of the time. I would look in my kitchen, make a mental note of which ingredients I had, and type it in. For example, I typed in something like cinnamon banana dessert - and I ended up making (my hubbys now favourite) caramelized banana pudding.

Think of a type of food or flavour that you're craving, and just search for it!

 

[Winterybella]

Hi there!

When I started baking, I relied on Google and pinterest 99% of the time. I would look in my kitchen, make a mental note of which ingredients I had, and type it in. For example, I typed in something like cinnamon banana dessert - and I ended up making (my hubbys now favourite) caramelized banana pudding.

Think of a type of food or flavour that you're craving, and just search for it!

That makes great sense. I am new to Pinterest, but it seems to offer just about everything imaginable. I have some ingredients I went out and bought just because I might have seen them in one recipe or the other. Now I have to find a way to bring them together and make something from scratch. I will probably try your approach.

 

[Wild Orchid]

Thank you both for the amazing advice. Pinterest and google do seem like everybody's best friend SoonToB. Winterybella it's nice to know that we were many 'box' bakers; seeing as initially I would bake under my mother's coerced efforts, boxed cake mixes were such a dream come true. It didn't me to hand-mix any cream, or to tire my brain with batter. Who ever thought one day I would be on a forum seeking advice on how to better my skill and knowledge on baking. Life does play jokes on you!

 

[Winterybella]

Who ever thought one day I would be on a forum seeking advice on how to better my skill and knowledge on baking. Life does play jokes on you!

Wild Orchid, my sentiments exactly. Who would have thought? For the last couple days I have been talking about my cookies (perceived disaster by my standards) that I made from scratch. Even though they fell short in my opinion and I did make a critical mistake, my husband and son still gave me a passing grade. What is the next stage pass newbie? That's where we will be heading soon.

 

[Tina Nord]

Foodnetwork.com has a lot of great baking recipes for bakers of all skill levels. I really like to watch the show and them log on to the website and grab some good recipes. My favorite are the down home country type of recipes, but they have a little of everything on the there.

 

[SweetToothOutlaws]

Yes I have relied on food network.com before, not only have the recipes been tested and are ranked for skill levels, but you know that cooks you see on t.v. these are their recipes and you know if you follow their recipe directions then it will turn out. There are some other recipe websites that I have used before like all recipes, I have found some neat recipes from that website in the past.


Good luck with everything in the future, and best wishes on your baking journey!

 

[tangela]

Don't be afraid to mess up. One of the best ways to figure out how to bake well is to mess up once in awhile.

Also, when you first follow a recipe, do it exactly as the recipe says. Don't alter it or anything. If after you've made it successfully for a few times, then feel free to make adjustments.

 

[SweetToothOutlaws]

Don't be afraid to mess up. One of the best ways to figure out how to bake well is to mess up once in awhile.

Also, when you first follow a recipe, do it exactly as the recipe says. Don't alter it or anything. If after you've made it successfully for a few times, then feel free to make adjustments.

I agree messing up in baking isn't a bad thing, you can learn from messing up which will help you along the way. There have been times where I just wanted to give up after messing up with something, and I just have to step back, breathe, and figure out what went wrong.

 

[Trellum]

Foodnetwork.com has a lot of great baking recipes for bakers of all skill levels. I really like to watch the show and them log on to the website and grab some good recipes. My favorite are the down home country type of recipes, but they have a little of everything on the there.

I love that web site, it was one of the first web sites I started to follow when I just started learning cooking, same with baking. I liked it since the first moment because they have everything so neatly organized!

 

[SweetToothOutlaws]

I love that web site, it was one of the first web sites I started to follow when I just started learning cooking, same with baking. I liked it since the first moment because they have everything so neatly organized!

I agree with this, because they have their recipes ranked from easy to super hard so you are not confused on what is easily done and the recipe that sounds like rocket science!