The Starting Point

So you wanna bake?

Cute.

Maybe you saw a video of someone casually making cookies at 11pm. Maybe you suddenly decided homemade cupcakes would be fun.

Or maybe you’re just bored and there happens to be flour in your house.

Either way, welcome.

Before you start, you should probably know that baking is not always as calm as it looks online.

You really don’t need that much

When you first get into baking, it feels like everybody owns 600 different things.

Stand mixer. Electric whisk. Twelve types of spatulas. Special cake tins. Thermometer.

Something called a dough scraper.

Relax.

When I started Ese Presents, I basically had a bowl, a whisk and whatever scraps of flour I could find in the kitchen. That was it. No fancy equipment, no perfect setup. I just wanted to make stuff.

And honestly, that’s enough to start.

As you bake more, you’ll slowly collect things and figure out what you actually need. You don’t need to buy an entire professional kitchen before you’ve made your first batch of cookies.

Although if there’s one thing I will defend: a kitchen scale.

Because “one cup of flour” sounds simple until you realise everybody’s cup apparently has its own personality.

Read the recipe. Like, actually read it.

Not just the ingredients.

The whole thing.

Before you start.

Finding out halfway through that the butter was supposed to be softened when yours has just come out of the fridge is a very specific type of pain.

Same with discovering something needs to chill for two hours when you planned to be eating it in 30 minutes.

Just read first. Future you will be grateful.

Your first one might be a bit… interesting

And that’s fine.

Maybe your cookies merge into one enormous cookie.

Maybe your cupcakes come out different sizes even though you SWEAR you put the same amount in each case.

Maybe your cake comes out looking absolutely nothing like the picture.

As long as it tastes good and is actually cooked, we move.

Baking gets easier mostly because you start noticing the little things. How thick a batter normally looks. When something needs another few minutes. When you’ve mixed something enough.

You don’t magically know any of that on day one.

Also, stop opening the oven

I know you want to look.

I know.

But every 45 seconds??

Leave that cake alone.

Turn the oven light on. Look through the glass.

Trust that something is happening in there.

Opening it repeatedly isn’t going to make it bake faster.

And finally…

Make something you actually want to eat.

Don’t start with a seventeen-step recipe because it looks impressive. Make cookies. Make muffins. Make banana bread. Make a simple cake.

Something where, even if it comes out slightly wonky, you’re still standing in the kitchen eating a warm piece five minutes later.

Because that’s kind of the best part.

You made something.

It might not look exactly like the picture.

But we’ll talk about that next time.

The Starting Point