The wikis currently seek to separate them. Not saying we have to stick by that (wikis can be changed) but I'd rather others weigh in first.
Posted under General
I'm kinda iffy on implicating. Sure, it's technically correct, but mentally, I sort of keep the two separate. There's also pics like post #940027 and post #653674 where baking would make sense, but not cooking since it's already finished.
I'd disagree that baking is a specific way of preparing food.
Clay bricks are baked, people bake under the sun, even throwing things on a fire could be described as frying, although I don't think danbooru goes with these meanings.
More importantly, an image of a cake in the oven would be tagged baking, but to tag it cooking, I'd expect someone to be at the sides with pots, bowls, chopping boards, etc.
I wrote the wiki the way it is because in my Chef Training studies, even the chef teachers said that cooking and baking are distinctly different. I used that quote from my baking teacher because baking really is a difficult and delicate process - if even one step goes wrong, the whole product fails, especially when it comes to yeast. At least in cooking, you have a lot more freedom to play with the recipe. You can add a few more vegetables, or a little more broth, or some more rice, and it won't hurt it.
However, I do agree that baking is one type of method used to heat food to make it safe to eat. Baking is a term used for applying rising dry heat from the bottom of an oven to a product inside said oven. Meats like roast beef, duck and turkey are technically baked in an oven, although we often call it roasting when talking about meat. Broiling is similar to baking but involves using heat from the top, such as melting cheese on pizza.
I believe that the word baking can both mean the making of desserts and bread, and the cooking method. But we as a society tend to associate baking with breads, cakes and cookies; pretty much anything to do with yeast, eggs, milk and sugar. So I think for Danbooru's sake, we keep them separate because you can't see the cooking method in a picture, but you can see sweets and desserts clearly, and that's what we habitually think of when we see the word baking.
Plus the word bakery refers to an establishment that solely focuses on sweets and breads, so yeah...