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basically what the question says. Of course, magic must preserve the conversation of energy. Baking is defined in the normal way:

the action of cooking food by dry heat without direct exposure to a flame, typically in an oven.

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    $\begingroup$ Can you describe how magic is used for baking? Something analogous to firebending? Conservation of energy is upheld; from where do the magic users draw their energy? $\endgroup$
    – BMF
    Jan 24 at 21:24
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    $\begingroup$ This depends on what your magic can achieve. If your magic simply bakes uncooked goods than its very unlikely they will achieve space travel with this, but if it has the ability to summon fire, move things by mind, etc… than it might be possible to use side effects of baking to achieve space travel. But for now please make your question more specific. $\endgroup$
    – HomegrownPotatoes
    Jan 24 at 21:29
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    $\begingroup$ Given the non-magic techniques of baking (such as applying heat or causing chemical reactions), what exactly does your baking magic replace? Furthermore, can your baking magic be used to "cook" non-food items? $\endgroup$
    – TheUndeadFish
    Jan 24 at 21:35
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    $\begingroup$ Are you asking if there are any segue compounds that create something akin to an explosive substance when combined via indirect heat? In other words, you baked a cake made out of actual food ingredients, plus extras, and caused a chemical reaction that resulted in some known propellant, then more or less elaborated that until space travel is possible? That is a huge bridge to leap, but it may not be impossible. $\endgroup$
    – Kai Qing
    Jan 24 at 22:16
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    $\begingroup$ When you mean magic for baking, do you mean "magic these cookie batter blobs into cookies" or "magic to create the oven environment to cook in"? Both potentially lead to different results and I'd hate to give an answer for one interpretation where you met the other. $\endgroup$
    – Haylen
    Jan 25 at 4:46

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Think of all the time/effort/energy that is used in the cooking of Food. Especially in a Medieval setting.

That's now gone.

That frees up a significant portion of time to devote to non-necessity pursuits.

Then there is the other reason for cooking food - not only does it taste yummy, but it kills bugs/parasites/bacteria - meaning it's safer to eat and there was a study from 2012 that indicated that cooked Meat in particular is good for brain growth - so to answer your question:

We needed to spend less time cooking (cause magic) and we grew bigger brains (cause cooked meat) - which causes a significant societal pivot into Science and Technology, leading to a much shortened time period to achieve space travel.

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    $\begingroup$ I'd argue the contrary re time spent - cooks still need to do all the pre-baking preparation of ingredients and once something is baking the cook basically can do other things except for checking on it occasionally to see if it is baked yet. Which means that this world isn't significantly different from our world... which led to space travel. $\endgroup$
    – KerrAvon2055
    Jan 25 at 2:04

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