If you spend an hour in my kitchen while I am baking, there is one thing you will notice very quickly.

I wash my hands. A lot.

Sometimes I feel like I have barely left the sink before I am back there again. On some days, it is every two minutes.

I wash before I start, after touching my phone, after handling packaging, after moving between different ingredients and pretty much whenever I feel like my hands need a clean.

So when someone asks me, “Do you wear gloves while baking?”, my answer is usually no.

I prefer clean, freshly washed hands.

I know gloves look more hygienic. We have all grown up seeing people wear gloves while handling food and automatically assuming that means everything is cleaner.

But a glove is only as clean as the things it touches.

Put on a fresh pair and then touch your phone, open a drawer, pick up a box and go back to the cake. You are still wearing gloves, but now that glove has been everywhere.

For me, washing my hands keeps me more aware of what I am doing.

Baking involves a lot of moving around. I am handling dough, butter, chocolate, fillings and decorations, switching between tasks all the time. So I would rather stop, wash my hands and carry on.

So no, I don't bake in gloves. I bake with clean hands, and I wash them a lot.