15 Beginner Bakes That Every Novice Should Master

For many people, baking is a tradition that is passed down from generation to generation. I, for one, grew up baking with my grandmother and my mother — so I can say I learned from the best. But, not everyone's baking journey follows the same path; in fact, you may just now be picking up baking as a hobby.

Generally speaking, baking is not something that has a high cost or barrier to entry, as you can pick up a beat-up cake pan at Goodwill and download a recipe online. But it does require some know-how to start out. You might be dreaming of all the elaborate cakes and pastries you're going to try your hand at, but are otherwise lost for where to start. That's why I've collected a list of some of my favorite, novice-friendly baking recipes that everyone should master before they take on more difficult bakes. I consider these recipes to be novice-friendly for several reasons. While the ingredient lists tend to be short and the technical skills required are limited, the real reason they're considered beginner bakes is because they allow home bakers to hone in on certain technical skills that will be required for more upper-level recipes.

While the statement "as American as apple pie" may not entirely be accurate, it doesn't change the fact that this staple is one of the best desserts that you can grace your table with. While I certainly won't discount the fact that making a pie is laborious (especially when you have to painstakingly peel, core, and slice your apples so that they're the same size), I will say that the return on this dessert is fantastic, especially for beginners.

Pie crust is something that translates to an array of different desserts, which is why pies, as a whole, are a great introduction into all things pastry. You'll very quickly learn the importance of keeping your dough chilled and why you can't overmix it. And while apples aren't super wet, you'll still get to practice making a crust that's not too thick nor too thin.

Apple pie is far from the most technical of pies — especially because you won't need to worry about blind baking. But, you will need to channel your efforts to making sure that your filling isn't so wet that it soaks through the crust, which is a technique that can also be applied to runnier fillings — like cherry and blueberry.

When the phrase "the easiest cookie to bake" comes to mind, you might immediately point to chocolate chip cookies. In doing so, you will miss the simplest cookie of them all: the shortbread.

High-quality shortbread is easy to whip up; you just need to mix together flour, sugar, and butter until it forms a cohesive dough. From there, you can stamp out your cookies with a cutter or use a knife to shape it. The ingredient list here is so simple that it likely won't even require a grocery run before you begin. But, there are some important things you need to focus on when you make and shape your cookies to ensure that they come out, well, short.

Technically, shortbread cookies are a bit more difficult than they seem, but once you get your hands on a good dough, you'll be making shortbread for every occasion or trying to repurpose your skills to make an upgraded tasty pie crust with it.

Okay, okay, I know the name here says "no-bake." But, there are several reasons why this dessert should still have a spot on this list. For one, making a normal cheesecake — I'm talking the one with the bain marie, the inevitable cracking, and the flavor that's never quite like The Cheesecake Factory — is a recipe for disappointment. It's one dessert that can really turn you off to baking entirely when something goes wrong.

If you're just getting your start into cheesecakes, I would recommend starting with a no-bake recipe instead. The filling itself is considered "no-bake" because it's filled with ingredients like whipped cream cheese and whipped cream — which together don't require baking. But, you can use this pie as an opportunity to practice and bake crumb crusts, which will provide a foundation for other no-bake desserts and New York-style cheesecake. With a no-bake cheesecake, you can also concentrate your efforts on building flavorful, inventive fillings that don't take up the whole day to bring together.

Bread baking is something that I find people tend to dive in head-first into. Unsurprisingly, they end up overwhelmed by the web of intricacies of the four seemingly simple ingredients: water, yeast, flour, and salt. Not to mention, you also have to be super, super patient to make bread, as it requires a ton of time for bulk fermentation, proofing, and shaping.

One bread that I find to be a great one for beginners, though, is homemade focaccia. It's so easy to bring your ingredients together in a bowl, let it sit overnight, and then let it proof again as you're preheating your oven. In terms of bread, it's about as hands-off as it gets — and it's pretty darn delicious, too. Plus, you get to go through the fun experience of manipulating your bread, dimpling it, and watching it come out of the oven with the perfect crispy crust. Once you master a standard recipe, start experimenting with different add-ins, like olives, herbs, garlic, and onions, to make your bread unique and extra tasty.

Scones are definitely not the first item I would recommend that a novice baker start with, but once you start to get comfortable with shortbreads, muffins, and cookies, then they're a solid item to turn to. Scones are grossly under-appreciated breakfast treats that are much more difficult to make than it seems, as there are many mistakes people make with them.

The biggest and most important thing to remember with scones is that they really don't like being poked and prodded. If you overmix your batter, you'll risk the butter leaking out when the scones bake or cause the gluten to stodge up and turn your soft, short scones into something more bread-like. Read the recipe very carefully to avoid adding items at the incorrect time and be sure to only mix so much that the dough comes together.

I recommend scones as a beginner bake because they're very versatile in terms of flavor add-ins. You can stick with sweet and stud your dough with raisins, blueberries, or chocolate chips, or play with cheeses, herbs, and meats for something on the savory side. Regardless of what you add to them, though, a good scone requires a good dough — and it's something you'll want to get the hang of making early on.

Cakes are often thought of as a beginner bake — mainly because you have so many different types of cake to choose from. Not to mention, you can use a quality boxed cake mix and no one will know the difference between that and a homemade cake.

There are some cake types that I don't recommend for novices — mainly anything that is leavened with beaten egg whites (think angel food cake). It can be tricky to craft a delicately light and fluffy sponge, and whipping egg whites adds a whole new piece to the puzzle. I would also recommend sticking with a single layer sheet cake over a tiered, climbing monstrosity of a dessert. Again, this harkens back to building your understanding of the structure and composition of a proper sponge before you start adding more variables.

Sheet cakes are often forgotten about recipes because of how simple they are. Bake the batter in a rimmed pan, slap on some frosting, and you're set. But, once you become more confident, then you can start to add new flavors, frostings, and more. For example, you can try out a gochujang Texas sheet cake when you're ready to start playing with more complex flavors.

Blueberry muffins are a breakfast treat that no one will ever complain about. If you're looking for something relatively simple to whip up, but still want to challenge yourself, try to master the perfect blueberry muffin. "Perfect" is the operative word here, as everyone's definition of the ideal blueberry muffin is different. Some people like to add a sugar topping, others max out the fruit, and everyone has their own idea about how big the muffin top should be. You could essentially try a whole bunch of recipes just to find the one that works best for you.

Like many of the items on this list, blueberry muffins are a seemingly simple item to bake, but they require much more skill than you would think. For one, you have to mix the batter just enough so that it combines, but not so much that it becomes springy and bread-like. Blueberry muffins also allot you an opportunity to play with fresh and frozen fruit for your recipe and find out ways to prevent those pesky fruits from sinking to the bottom or coloring your batter blue. There's a lot to be learned.

Once you've graduated from Cake 101 (meaning sheet cakes), you can start to play with more intensive treats. I would consider cupcakes to be the next step up from sheet cake, though they're still a dessert that's approachable enough for beginners to take on. I recommend that novices try this bake not because of the cake base, but rather the frosting on top.

Although decorating is not technically part of baking, it's part of the dessert-making process. Working on a small space, like a cupcake, allows you to perfect not only your piping skills, but it also forces you to be consistent with your designs and your bake. You have to fill your cupcakes to the same level in the tin to ensure that they look uniform, just as you have to use the same pressure on the piping bag as you pipe to ensure that all of your frosting swirls look the same.

After you've played with more basic cupcake frosting techniques, like the offset spatula swirl, you can start playing with different piping tips and refine your piping skills. Piping isn't for the faint of heart, but with some practice (and a couple batches of cupcakes), I assure you that you can get the hang of it in no time.

Pound cake's name stems from its simple ingredients: a pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. Now that's a recipe that you can remember.

But, it's not just the simplicity of pound cake that makes it a great item for novice bakers to try. It also has tons of potential for variations. Once you've gotten the hang of making a soft, fluffy, and tasty cake, you can start exploring different flavor additions, like lemon and blueberry, or you can even spice things up with a tasty glaze. Experiment with the pound cake to see how things like extracts, zests, and different types of sugar can alter the recipe — and even make it better.

Moreover, there are tons of different ways to serve pound cake, which will spark some inspiration for how to serve other desserts on this list aside from just plopping them on a plate. For one, you may want to try grilling your pound cake or using it as the base for a sweet strawberry shortcake.

After you've played with a couple of basic bread recipes, it's time to hit the ground running with a bake that looks harder to make than it is: Dutch oven bread. The Dutch oven bread recipes I've worked in the past yield a very moist dough; the moisture is what, compounded with the steaming effect of the lid, gives the bread its signature crispy crust and crackle. These recipes tend not to require too much mixing either, which is great if you don't have the patience to watch a stand mixer twirl dough for what seems like ages. Once you practice the dance of preheating your oven, adding the bread, steaming it, and finishing the loaf uncovered, then you can try scoring and tweaking your recipe to include some flavorful additions.

The one prerequisite to making this loaf, as the name suggests, is that you own a Dutch oven. You can use this pot for everything — and it's one cooking vessel that I would recommend that all folks, bakers or not, have on hand.

You can never underestimate the power and effectiveness of a good coffee cake. While the base recipe is very simple, you can go absolutely hog wild with your streusel topping. Coffee cake is a safe space to experiment, especially with spices. While there's nothing wrong with the standard coffee cake, jam-packed with cinnamon and sugar, you can also play with more unusual spices, like chai spices, cardamom, and even black pepper, to give your streusel an edge. Or if you're up for a challenge, try layering in fruit while also balancing a great sponge and thick streusel layer. It can have a lot — or as little — as you want going on.

The best thing about coffee cake is that you can experiment with spices and add-ins, but you also have to keep in mind that your sponge needs to be positively top notch for the whole bite to work. You'll learn how to mix your batter just enough so that it holds, but doesn't get too stringy. You'll also quickly find out if melted, softened, or hard butter makes the best streusel topping.

In the great big world of enriched doughs, cinnamon rolls are a very safe option. Before you start whipping up complicated babkas and filled, sweet loaves, master the art of bringing together, shaping, and baking a quality batch of cinnamon rolls. "Art" is the operative word, as you have to find out how to balance the sweetness and the breadiness of your rolls — and, of course, overcome any challenges and fears you have working with a yeasted dough. Once you've mastered the perfect rise, you can start experimenting and playing with fillings. Cinnamon sugar is a classic filling for these rolls, but it's far from the only thing that you have to use; you can also experiment with pie fillings, jams, and nuts to give your batch a creative twist. 

Speaking of twists — it's the shaping that really gets a lot of novices. My recommendation is to try and start with a dough that's as rectangular as possible; you may even want to trim off the sides so you have a straight edge to work with. Then, tuck your log in tight as you roll it to prevent the cinnamon rolls from coming undone as they bake. 

It doesn't get more novice-friendly than a batch of warm, gooey chocolate chip cookies. There is a recipe printed on the back of nearly every bag of chocolate chips, or you can find one buried with your family's other favorite recipes. The chocolate chip cookie is the little black dress of the culinary world; it never goes out of style. 

The reason why I particularly love teaching the basics of baking with these cookies is because you can easily tweak the recipe and have an entirely different cookie come out of the oven. It's a lesson in cooking chemistry. For example, for crunchier cookies, add in more fat and bake them longer in the oven to dry them out. Or, you may want to try swapping out the bread flour for regular flour for a chewier variety, or use a little bit of cake flour for a more brittle cookie. Once you have a good chocolate chip cookie foundation, you can use the same recipe for other types of add-ins. For example, I use my trusted chocolate chip cookie recipe for peanut butter cookies; I just add a little bit of peanut butter and peanut butter chips to the mix.

There are many great store-bought brownie mixes out there, but that doesn't mean that you can't also try your hand at a homemade batch, too. If you close your eyes and think of the perfect brownie, the confection that comes to mind is probably deeply fudgy, chocolatey, and has that perfect crispy coating on the top. With a little bit of practice, you too can whip up a tasty brownie fit for bake sales, dinner tables, and birthday parties galore.

My secrets to getting great brownies? Add oil and melted butter to your batter. You need enough fat to condition the flour and keep it moist, and you also want a slight, but not overpowering, buttery flavor in every bite. As for the crispy, shiny crust, I would recommend adding chocolate chips, as the fat and sugar is helpful in developing this signature topping.

That display case of macarons at your local French pastry shop looks very enticing — I know. But, if you are just starting out on your baking journey, macarons are probably the last recipe you'll want to try making. They are so finicky and can sense fear from a mile away.

In order to prepare yourself for making more complex meringue-based recipes, like macarons, you'll want to start with the basics: meringue cookies. They're made with French meringue, which is made by adding granulated sugar to stiffened egg whites. It's the easiest type of meringue to make, as there's no double boilers or hot sugar syrup involved. That being said, there are some techniques you'll need to grasp with these cookies, including getting your whites to a stiff peak stage, piping them, and drying them without them cracking. Once you are comfortable with French meringue, consider trying a meringue pie or frosting before you even think about pulling out that macaron Silpat.