Hey, girl! I love baking and cooking! Mise en place is the trick. It may take a while if you have challenging disorganization (which BMO and I do), and you might have a ton of stuff fall out of the cupboards at you, but getting mise en place (or everything you need for the task set out and in your workspace before beginning) is so helpful.

Then, I have a set cupboard for baking ingredients (anything that would actually go in the mixing bowl). When I start making more stuff at a time, like during the holidays, I get 15 gallon totes and put a clear garbage bag and fill it with flour or sugar. In the flour, put three bay leaves (they keep the meal worms and other bugs away).

In terms of supplies, I haven’t gotten my organization set yet. I try to keep all of my stuff in one place, but I haven’t gotten there yet. Currently, I’m planning to try and set up a wall of hanging materials, like measuring cups, cake levelers, metal spatulas, etc. As of right now, they’re spread all over my kitchen and it’s a pain in the ass.

I’d love to talk more, if you wanna DM or BMO! Either way, the only thing I can say is, don’t try to force a neurotaypical brain into a neurotypical organizational system. It’s debilitating and so discouraging. If you need to buy furniture or containers or bins to help, and that takes up all of your counter space, then that’s fine, so long as it makes sense to you!

no advice but

Someone please give me a crumb of advice.

i see what u did there

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I read "cups" and my heart skipped a beat. When baking, measure in GRAMS (weight, rather than volume) and that will help out loads. Cooking is an art, baking is a science blah blah blah

I tried baking. I sucked at it. I switched to making ice cream. I'm happy with my decision.

I've had a good handle on measuring ingredients but mostly because I took music classes for years in school. That really taught me how to count in fractions. So just pick up an instrument for like 8 years and you golden.

But seriously you need to fuck up a lot before you get good. Remember to write everything down on paper, screens I tend to forget or get distracted and miss things. Mix all your dry ingredients first before adding wet. Try not to over mix cuz gluten. Hang your measuring cups and spoons.

Also take this one as a maybe but I took down my fire alarm. I know this is bad but I can't handle smoke and loud noises. Just the one in the kitchen I swear but I also open the windows. Good luck.

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I mostly just try and know when there's a time factor so that I'm not rushed looking at the recipe. Don't wanna be trying to figure your shit out while the butter in your pie crust is melting. My stuff usually comes out looking like garbage anyway, but it tastes good

Don't rush at all otherwise you'll make mistakes, read twice measure once (just read the recipe a lot so you don't make mistakes) and pre heat the oven

If you can, by a bread machine. They make baking so easy.

Setup everything beforehand, have it laid out. Before you actually start cooking, mentally go through what you are going to do, and touch the things you are going to use for the step you are going over as you are going over it.

You will remember anything you are forgetting if you do this, and will immediately realize if you have things laid out stupidly. You will probably also think of a slightly better way to do some part of the process just from touching the ingredients and mentally picturing what you are going to do with them.

I don't like cooking things that require precision, so I don't really bake. However, I am a photographer and I develop my own film, which requires even more precision and consistency. Doing prep as I have described has helped tremendously, things are easier and less stressful, and I've improved my process quickly.

I'm not great either, but yeah, follow recipes to the T. There are common substitutions but you generally have to be a bit more careful than with cooking.

It's helpful to have your ingredients set out ahead of time, as well as a couple mixing bowls, some spoons to stir, and a set of measuring cups and spoons from 1 or 2 cups down to 1/4 or 1/8 teaspoon.

As Wmill said, for a lot of recipes you'll want to mix dry ingredients in one bowl, wet ingredients in another, and then combine.

Eventually you'll get to know what different shit does. Baking powder helps make pancakes and muffins fluffy. Eggs, flax eggs, bananas, or applesauce are useful as binding agents. More sugar means a melting, spreading cookie and brown sugar is chewier than white.

It never hurts to keep an eye on things in the oven in case it takes a bit less time than the recipe calls for. When you take something out of the oven, it'll get more solid as it cools. If it's still too goopy for you it might be done anyway.

Up until like a year or two ago it was the anxiety that held me back when baking. Tbh, as long as you get it sorta close and the recipe is sweet, it'll probably be tasty. I only really know vegan stuff so if you want to know any substitutions ask away

mainly I just avoid baking anything that requires proofing tbh, highly recommend doing egg-based desserts (flan, creme brulee, merengue, flourless tortes, bread pudding, etc) rather than anything that requires mucking about with flour — otherwise would recommend less-involved desserts like brownies, unleavened cakes (beer cakes are super great), or sweeter breads like banana/pumpkin/zucchini/squash bread

can't help with organization though, sorry :/

I bake a lot, but mostly bread. But I bake a lot, and when I do all of these things, it always works out. If I skip something, it does not. Here we go.

Basically I read the recipe. Entirely. All of it. And then I read it again.

Then I measure out all of my ingredients separately. I use weights. So I have a ton of mixing bowls and a little gram scale. If something calls for X butter here and Y butter here, I separate those out too. If you find yourself REALLY struggling with keeping track of everything, at this stage, read the recipe again and while reading it organize the ingredients so you can grab the right amount at the right time.

Then just follow the recipe. If it says knead by hand, knead by hand. If it says mix slowly, mix slowly. If it says combine A and B, then slowly add half of C, then add D, then slowly add the rest of C...DO that. Slowly. Carefully. One step at a time.

Then WAIT. If it says to let it sit on your counter for an hour in a plastic wrapped bowl, put it on the counter and walk away for an hour.

Next, baking it. Your oven is wrong. If you have it set to 350 it might be 360 or 330 or 400. Buy like a 5 dollar oven thermometer and learn your oven. Set it to 350 and see where it's at...mine is 10 degrees cool at 350, so if a recipe says "350" I set mine to 360 so that my oven thermometer says 350.

Then bake. Do NOT touch it unless the recipe says so. Do NOT open the oven unless the recipe says to. If it says to check if after 20 mins, just a quick check. Don't pull it out, poke it, look at it for a minute, and then put it back. Open, glance, decide, and shut, and wait a bit longer before checking again.

Lastly, let it cool by whatever the recipe says. If it says to leave it in the pan and put the pan on a cooling rack for at least 10 minutes, then put it on that rack and walk away. Do not come check it after 5 minutes, poking it, whatever. Just walk away and let it do its thing. If it says to chill for 2 hours before serving, do that. To remove from pan and eat immediately, do that.

And if you do all of that, carefully, and you're sure you didn't skip a step because it probably will be fine, and it STILL didn't work out....get a different recipe.

Hope it helps!

How come every time I try to bake something it comes out like a biscuit? It's all fucking puffy and doughy but also cracker like. I don't get it. Any tips for baking with gluten free flour?