Baking

What is it about baking that fills me with dread?  Is it the exact nature of the ingredients? There's no improvising?   That you need the proper tools:  parchment paper, springform pans, cake flour?  No making due with whatever you have on hand?  The capriciousness  of the oven-the temperature, the time?  It's not like braising/stewing/soups-the longer the better.  How do I know when it's really done?  Why is it too dark yet wet in the middle?  What causes that-too high, not enough time?  No clue.  My kind of cooking:  Seems dry?  Add wine.  Seems bland? Toss in some fresh herbs or more garlic.  There's no last minute save with baking.  Your finished baking product needs to look precise, pretty.  I'm a more rustic kind of girl.  I didn't grow up in a baking family.  There were the occasional cookies, or brownies from a box.  A bundt cake with mix, pudding, sherry, brandy: yummy in a sweet, simple, potlucky sort of way.  I am also, for the most part, not a huge dessert person.  Give me delicious, runny, smelly cheese with a slice of baguette.  I don't speak baking.  It's another language that I know a few, very basic words in.  I could make cookies.  A simple pie.  Basic brownies.  Nothing with frosting.  Nothing that involves layers.  Or pie weights.  Or strips of parchment or water baths.