Having someone during those hard times is really a big help no. Its awesome if we have more coz we won't feel lonely with them around. Feels like "thank you" is really not enough to show them how thankful we are.

And baking? Thats the one skill I want to have if only I am not lazy to learn. But yeah, even that has a lot of steps to follow if we want to succeed in it..in your case, it maybe didn't become "that" as to how you want it to be but at least, you gain an amazing skills and memories with it for sure. And you can still do it however you want.