General

Baking to me is more dessert oriented, where cooking is regular food.

Of course you would create a forum post that I can't help but respond to.

Depending on the dish, both can require a great amount of skill when it comes to determining what will go into it and preparation. Both can also have incredibly easy dishes that anyone can do without messing up too badly (plain old chocolate chip cookies aren't rocket science).

As someone who is good at both, my preference would be towards baking. And I think the why to that, might be more of what you are getting at when it comes to the difference between the two.

I love baking more because it offers far more creativity and variation, both in ingredients used and preparation method. I can only do so much with chicken, but I can do hundreds of variations of cake. Coming up with them is by far a skill in and of its own right, not everyone can do it, and unlike cooking, it isn't necessarily a skill you can learn ... you just have it