Dictionary Definition of Baking

One of my favorite hobbies is baking. First thing I would like to share with you about baking is the differences between baking and cooking. The next thing is a little history behind it and some of the importance's of using the correct measurements and tools.

The dictionary definition of baking is "to cook food by dry heat without direct exposure to a flame, typically in an oven or on a hot surface," while the definition of cooking is "the practice or skill of preparing food." the dictionary definitions are not too different from each other, but the way my mom differentiates the two is "cooking is when you taking things you could eat alone an put them together, while baking is when you take things you wouldn't normally eat alone and put them together." This would mean things like bread, cake, pastries, etc.

Now that you have an idea of the difference between cooking and baking, I should tell you the history. Baking has been around almost as long as fire. It is believed that the first act of baking was a flat bread made with wild grains and water that were poured onto a flat rock, but the first real documented history of baking was from Egyptian hieroglyphics dating back to 2600 BC. Aristophanes, who lived between 450 BC and 385 BC, wrote about the greeks having, what we now would call a doughnut made of flour and honey that would be plunged into wine. Soon bakeries started forming, and in the time of Jesus there was close to 300 bakeries in Rome alone. Ever since the discovery of baking it has really taken off and there are more than ten bakeries located here in La Crosse.

I could really go into depth on the history of baking alone but I feel the most important thing to share with you is the importance of measuring. When I watch shows like Cake Boss, I see the bakers jut throwing ingredients into the mixing bowl. So when I first tried baking a cake that was what I did, I just "eyed" the measurement. Needless to say the cake came out like crap. I didn't follow a recipe and take good measurements. Those bakers on TV have been baking for a long time and know how to eye measure whereas I didn't. Plus I made the mistake of using a liquid measuring cup for the flour and sugar. There is a reason there is a LIQUID ingredient measuring cup and a DRY ingredient measuring cup. With a dry ingredient measuring utensil you can pile the ingredients in the cup and use a flat edge, I usually us the cover of a plastic container, to get the exact measurement. What I didn't know when I first tried baking the cake was how much chemistry really goes into baking. Sugar makes the recipe sweeter, while flour makes the recipe dryers. If you add too much flour to your recipe than it requires, it will turn out too dry. Also when you are measuring out a tablespoon, never use a spoon you would eat with, this leaves a huge gap for error. You should use a measuring spoon that usually comes