A baking mix is a mixed formulation of ingredients used for the cooking of baked goods. Baking mixes may be commercially manufactured or homemade. Baking mixes that cater to particular dietary needs, such as vegan, gluten-free, or kosher baking mixes, can be bought in many places.
The contents of a chocolate cake baking mix
Duncan Hines baking cake mix being mixed together
Betty Crocker orange madeira cake mix, New Zealand, 1940s-70s.
Grain elevators at the Chelsea Milling Company, manufacturer of Jiffy mix products, in Chelsea, Michigan
Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot stones. The most common baked item is bread, but many other types of foods can be baked. Heat is gradually transferred "from the surface of cakes, cookies, and pieces of bread to their center, typically conducted at elevated temperatures surpassing 300°F. Dry heat cooking imparts a distinctive richness to foods through the processes of caramelization and surface browning. As heat travels through, it transforms batters and doughs into baked goods and more with a firm dry crust and a softer center. Baking can be combined with grilling to produce a hybrid barbecue variant by using both methods simultaneously, or one after the other. Baking is related to barbecuing because the concept of the masonry oven is similar to that of a smoke pit.
Freshly baked bread
Anders Zorn – Bread baking (1889)
A Palestinian woman baking markook bread on tava or Saj oven in Artas, Bethlehem, Palestine
A terracotta baking mould for pastry or bread, representing goats and a lion attacking a cow. Early 2nd millennium BC, Royal palace at Mari, Syria