Now let me preface this by saying that I have never been good at baking. In fact, I was only marginally better at mixing the ingredients than my brothers, who both preferred to simply be there for the finished product. Whether it was spilling yet another bowl of flour, or managing to crack not just 1, but 3 separate eggs in the span of one hour, I always found myself fumbling a recipe some way or another. Nonetheless, after many spoiled attempts at everything from brownies to cakes, my interest in the art of baking has only grown (even if my skill has not). After so many years, I believe have solved at least a partial reason as to why baking is so dear in the hearts of many people
It promotes creativity
Despite the sometimes rigid structure of recipes, baking allows you to be more creative than you can ever imagine. You constantly think of new designs and shapes for the new cake you are going to bake, using the tools at your disposal to create various patterns that will allow you to express yourself in whichever you like. Previous studies have shown that there is a relation between creative expression and well being, which is yet another great thing about baking.
It allows for stress reduction and relaxation
When people are stressed, they will often look for distractions that will be able to ease the mind, and baking can be just that. Clinical psychologist Dr. Mary McNaughton-Cassill suggests that some of it’s just allowing yourself to be creative—adding flavor, changing color, forming shapes. Then you’ve got the sensory triggers. “The smell of spices and vanilla are comforting, and [they] often remind us of happy times. Olfactory scents are particularly linked to areas of the brain that involve emotions and memory,” she says. There’s also the magic of it all: “Mixing inert substances together, and watching them rise can bring out the mystic, or the chemist, in all of us.”
This type of exercise can even trigger a state of mindfulness, which is to say the quality of being engaged, that many psychologists believe is one of the best ways to combat anxiety and depression. When you’re baking, you can’t help but be engaged in the task; a lack of attention in such an activity could ruin the whole process if you let go of that scientific precision.
So instead, you don’t. So by the end, hopefully, you are both less stressed and you may have a set of decently made cookies to cheer you up a bit more.
(I have the urge to point out that the word ‘stressed’ spelled backwards is ‘desserts’… but that would be tacky… of course).Â
You are in control of things
There is no one that would argue against it being a chaotic past few years, and even now, as many of us return to yet another new semester, there will always be things out of our control. The art of baking allows us to be in charge of at least this one aspect of our lives. Of course, there are directions on how to bake certain items, but you’re free to customize it how you like. Some of the best recipes that get handed down through generations take their own spin on a traditional way to bake something. Plus, having this small sense of control is known to have numerous benefits for your daily life, including helping you feel more centered and perhaps a bit more calm.
In the end, it is inevitably up to you whether you take this piece of advice or not. However, through my own failed and fumbled attempts, I have learned that baking is something you never truly regret.Â
You don’t have to love cooking to cook, but you have to do more than love baking to bake. You have to bake out of love.
– Tom Junod
