Your grandma never measured the flour. That’s not magic, it’s fifty years of paying attention.

What looks like instinct is almost always compressed repetition. Someone who has made the same dough a thousand times has learned what the right stiffness feels like under a thumb, and that sense replaced the cup measure decades ago. She did not skip the stage you are in. She passed through it so long ago that the measuring disappeared into her hands.

Let that take the sting out of needing the recipe. Measure carefully for now, and each time note one thing your senses told you: how the batter looked, how long the pan needed. Keep doing that and the numbers start to feel optional.