I’m sorry to hear you’re frustrations with the course and flow overall. One thing I’ve learned from doing this for nearly 4 years is that a perfect, globally-understood piece of education is an impossible task. And it’s a weird place to be when apologizing to you for the difficulty you’re having with the material while also thanking other users who tell me they’ve learned so clearly from the same material.
That said, you’re kick-ass computer should be able to handle these baking tasks easily. So let’s get to trouble shooting:
What version of Blender are you using?