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I started baking when I was pretty little actually. I think when I was five or six, I always wanted to help my mom bake stuff because she would make cookies or things for the holidays. When I was growing older, I think I would just watch a lot of videos and I think that really inspired me. I really liked especially vlogs of people cooking or baking. That was really interesting for me, and I think that’s what inspired me to start baking.

Before I would just bake like what my mom was making. I would just try to copy whatever she did like because I looked up to her a lot. But I think as I grew up, I started to try recipes from different cultures or like to just try more difficult things.

One of my favorite things about baking is that sense of togetherness because after you make food, it’s really rewarding to watch the people you love eating and enjoying that food. I definitely think the holidays is that time of the year.

I think, especially after I’ve made the stuff. Sometimes I’ll bake stuff, and I’ll bring it for my friends. Just seeing them all enjoying it and then sort of laughing and being like, “Oh, this is so good.” I think that’s very rewarding. 

But also for me personally, when I make stuff myself, it is like a way for me to destress. A lot of the times when I have a lot of work to do, I’ll just find myself going to the kitchen and just making something because it really helps me to destress.

I feel like a lot of people are intimidated, especially with baking because like, they think “Oh, it has to be really precise” or some people have been baking for a long time and I don’t really know how to start. But honestly, I would just say bake with your friends or something that is really fun. Even if it does not turn out good, which has definitely happened to me a lot of the times, it’s like you’ll realize that it’s much more fun no matter what the outcome is.

There were a lot of times where I would try a new dish or I would try to bake something new, and it just wasn’t working out. A lot of the times my mom will notice or my friends will notice, even if I bring something that doesn’t look good, and they’ll still encourage me to make something. I think that is really helpful and motivating for me.

I cook for myself almost every day, so every day I’ll get groceries and I’ll cook. I think baking is more for special occasions. When I’m really stressed, I think I find myself baking more than cooking, and cooking is more an everyday thing that I just started doing. 

Since I have gotten more experience in cooking, and I sort of understand the ingredients more, sometimes if something fails I can sort of recover from it just by knowing what flavors that I might enjoy, and I might add something. It might not turn out exactly how the recipe intended for it to be, but then it still turns out pretty good.

Sometimes I’ll try a recipe, and it will be successful and I really like how it turned out, but then I will try to add my own sort of twist. That’s also something that I really like about cooking and baking. I think you could be really, even though it is already like a creative thing, I think it’s really fun to see other people being creative. But also I kind of noticed it about myself as well. When you make more things, you can sort of add your own personal twist. 

I think definitely by being able to devote your own time, and then also, like I said earlier, sort of add your own twist to things. I think that makes it much more rewarding than buying stuff, and, yeah. I think it’s, the experience is really nice, and I think more people should try it even if they are sort of scared of trying something new.