Cooking is an art. You can customize everything and just add things on the fly and it'll turn out at least decent.
Baking is a science. You need exact measurements for everything otherwise it'll be inedible and you'll be crying and your kitchen will be a mess.
Trust me. I have experienced the highest highs of throwing together wonderful dishes, and the lowest lows of baking cookies that look like paperweights and taste about the same.
That's because with cooking, it's about imparting flavors. With baking, it's about the chemical reactions within the food to give it a certain quality.
... I used to be the first one, then the bottom one, now I'm more in a total impro mode like "ok I got this and that...what if I added this? Ok, kind of the texture I was expecting... Now how am I going to cook/bake it?" On the plus side I'm often pleasantly surprised (and very proud). On the downside, I need to take notes right after I eat the result otherwise I know I'll never be able to get the exact same result.
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/412zUO7O1sL._AC_SY400_.jpg
Baking is a science. You need exact measurements for everything otherwise it'll be inedible and you'll be crying and your kitchen will be a mess.
Trust me. I have experienced the highest highs of throwing together wonderful dishes, and the lowest lows of baking cookies that look like paperweights and taste about the same.