If you're playing Survival mode on Minecraft, you are going to have to eat. You have lots of options when it comes to both meats and vegetation. Then, once you have the basics, you can craft even more types of food. I'm going to go over your options and how to craft cakes, cookies, and other foods.

Step 1: Hunger

Normal gameplay (on Easy, Normal, and Hard) will deplete your Saturation and Hunger.

Aspects of Hunger:

Hunger is shown by the little icons that look like drumsticks and each drumstick = 2 hunger.
You have a total of 10 pieces with a maximum food level of 20 hunger.
Sprinting depletes your food level faster and you cannot sprint if you are below 6 hunger.
At 18 hunger and above, your health will start to increase on its own if you are not full.
When hunger is down to 0, your health will decrease by 1 (half a heart) every 4 seconds
- On Easy - it will stop decreasing at 10 (5 hearts)
- On Normal - it will stop decreasing at 1 (half a heart)
- On Hard - it will decrease till you die (if you don't stop it by eating)

When the Saturation level goes down, then your hunger starts to deplete. All food has a different amount of hunger and saturation that it restores.

Both Saturation and hunger are important to think about when eating in the game because it is when your Saturation goes down that your Hunger can start to go down, and your saturation cannot ever be more than your hunger. The problem is, the Saturation bar is invisible. The only indication that your Saturation is at zero is the hunger bar (the drumsticks) will start to shake. Once that happens, your hunger can start to deplete.

Now, there are a lot of different foods to eat in the game, and it's good to remember what each food can do for you and how you can get it.

Step 2: Basic Supplies

To get started, here is how to craft some basic supplies you'll need in regards to getting food.

Basic Crafting (just a helpful reminder)

4 Sticks = 2 Wooden Planks stacked
4 Wooden Planks = 1 Piece of Wood

Crafting and Cooking

Crafting Table = 4 Wooden Plants in a square
Furnace = 8 Cobblestone (in all spaces except the center)

Miscellaneous Supplies

Bowl = 3 Wooden Planks in the shape of a bowl
Fishing Rod = 3 Sticks played diagonally + 2 pieces of String going down on the right
Boat = 5 Wooden Plants in the bottom two rows minus the very center square
4 Bonemeal = 1 Bone
Fence = 4 Wooden Planks (two on each side) + 2 Sticks (stacked between planks)
Gate = 4 Sticks (two on each side) + 2 Wooden Planks (stacked between sticks)

Step 3: Meats - Animals

Meat can be a good way to bring up your hunger bar. There are various mobs you can eat within the game (essentially, farm animals). Many of them have similar characteristics, but here is a breakdown of what drops which meat and what you can do with those meats.

Bad Food, such as raw chicken, rotten flesh, spider eyes, and pufferfish, can give the player (several) bad status effects, such as Hunger, Poison, and Nausea. If you are about to starve and only have this food, you can drink milk afterwards to clear all their status effects, but I would only eat any of these as a last resort.

Beef
- Cows and Mooshrooms drop Raw Beef when killed (can drop up to 3)
- Cows and Mooshrooms drop Steak when killed by fire
- Cook Raw Beef in Furnace to get Steak
- Steak restores 8 hunger
- Raw Beef restores 3 hunger
Pork
- Pigs drop Raw Porkchop when killed (can drop up to 3)
- Pigs drop Cooked Porkchops when killed by fire
- Cook Raw Porkchop in Furnace to get a Cooked Porkchop
- Cooked Porkchop restores 8 hunger
- Raw Porkchop restores 3 hunger
Mutton
- Sheep drop Raw Mutton when killed (can drop up to 2)
- Sheep drop Cooked Mutton when killed by fire
- Cook Raw Mutton in Furnace to get Cooked Mutton
- Cooked Mutton restores 6 hunger
- Raw Mutton restores 2 hunger
Chicken
- Chickens drop Raw Chicken when killed (can drop up to 1)
- Chickens drop Cooked Chicken when killed by fire
- Cook Raw Chicken in Furnace to get Cooked Chicken
- Cooked Chicken restores 6 hunger
- Raw Chicken restores 2 hunger and also has a 30% chance of giving you food poisoning for 30 seconds
Rabbit
- Rabbits drop Raw Rabbit when killed (can drop up to 1)
- Rabbits drop Cooked Rabbit when killed with fire
- Cook Raw Rabbit in Furnace to get Cooked Rabbit
- Cooked Rabbit restores 5 hunger
- Raw Rabbit restores 3 hunger

Eat only when Desperate:

Rotten Flesh
- Obtained by killing a Zombie and Zombie Pigman (possibly while fishing)
- Restores 4 hunger and also has 80% chance of giving you food poisoning for 30 seconds (drink milk to cure the food poisoning right away)

Step 4: Meat - Fish

Fishing is pretty easy.

You start by selecting the fishing rod like you would with any other tool. To cast it, just "use" it like you would any other tool (make sure you are facing water). Now you have to wait. Once you cast your line in the water, you'll see a little bobber floating on the surface (no matter where you walk or turn, the bobber will stay in the same spot).

To reel it in, you just need to "use" the item again. You'll know you have something on your hook when you see bubbles forming on the surface of the water and zooming towards your bobber. Then your bobber will start to bob. Use the rod to reel in your catch.

[The first three things I caught were a normal fish, pufferfish, and Enchanted Book (Fire Protection III). That book was a really interesting catch.]

You can fish from land (into water) or from a boat.

There are four types of fish you can catch.

Fish
- Cook Raw Fish in Furnace to get Cooked Fish
- Raw Fish restores 2 hunger
- Cooked Fish restores 5 hunger
Salmon
- Cook Raw Salmon in Furnace to get Cooked Salmon
- Raw Salmon restores 2 hunger
- Cooked Salmon restores 6 hunger
Clownfish
- Rare fish; chances of catching one is only 2%
- Restores 1 hunger
Pufferfish
- Uncommon fish with unknown chance of catching
- Restore 1 hunger
- Is toxic and will also give you Hunger for 15 seconds, Nausea for 15 seconds, and Poison for 1 minute

Step 5: Crops and Other Vegetation

Learn more about farming in my Farming In Minecraft Instructable. Here I am only covering aspects of these foods that involves eating. Plants can be grown faster by using Bonemeal on them.

[ I'm going to break this up into two steps just because it got so long. ]

Carrot
- Find them in Villages or Zombies may drop them
- Plant carrot directly to grow more carrots
- Restores 3 hunger when eaten
- Crafting - Crafting Table
  - Gold Carrot - Restores 6 hunger
    - 8 Gold Nuggets + Carrot in the middle
  - Rabbit Stew - Restores 8 hunger
    - Cooked Rabbit + Carrot + Baked Potato + Red Mushroom + Bowl
Potato
- Find them in Villages or Zombies may drop them
- Plant potato directly to grow more potatoes
- Restores 1 hunger when eaten
- Smelting/Cooking - Furnace
  - Baked Potato - Restores 5 hunger
    - Cook potato in Furnace
  - Rabbit Stew - Restores 8 hunger
- Poisonous Potato
  - Possible drop when harvesting the potato crop
  - Restores 2 hunger with 60% chance of getting Poison for 4 seconds
  - Cannot be planted or cooked in a furnace
Wheat
- Easiest and most common plant that is farmed - seeds can be found by breaking grass
- Unlike carrots and potatoes, you have to plant the seeds to get more wheat, you can't plant the wheat itself
- Cannot be eaten by itself, must be crafted
- Crafting
  - Bread - Restores 5 hunger
    - 3 pieces of Wheat
  - Cake* - Slice restores 2 hunger, whole cake restores 14 hunger
    - 3 buckets of Milk + 3 Wheat + 2 Sugar + 1 Egg
  - Cookie - Restores 2 hunger
    - 2 Wheat + 1 Cocoa Beans
Melon
- Find in Jungle biomes and in chests in mines
- When you break a melon, it turns into Melon Slices
  - Melon Slice = 1 Melon Seed
- Unlike Wheat, Potatoes, and Carrots, Melons will appear on a square that is adjacent to where the seed is planted.
- If they are placed a block away from each other, the stems will "claim" the same melon essentially wasting one of your vines. It is better to grow them further apart or in a row.
- Restores 2 hunger
- Crafting
  - Melon Slices can be put together to make a Melon
Pumpkin
- Find in most overworld biomes
- When you break a Pumpkin, you get a full Pumpkin; you must craft it into seeds before you can plant and farm it
  - Pumpkin = 4 Pumpkin Seeds
- Pumpkins always have a jack o'lantern looking face on it (but it won't glow unless crafted with a torch). The face will always face you when placed.
- Cannot be eaten by itself, must be crafted
- Crafting
  - Pumpkin Pie - Restores 8 hunger
    - Pumpkin + Sugar + Eggs
  - Pumpkin Seeds - Cannot eat

NOTES:

*Cake

Unlike all other foods, there is no consuming animation of you eating it.
Instead, you have to place the cake on a block, then click on it as if you are going to use it and you will instantly have eaten a slice.

**Milk

Obtained by using a bucket on a cow
Does not restore any hunger, only used to get rid of status effects (like poisoning)
Used in Cake recipe

Step 6: Crops and Vegetation Continued

Just some more vegetation that can be used in crafting food.

Sugar Cane
- Find next to water
- Plant sugar cane on sand or dirt right next to water; can only be planted right next to water
- To harvest, break all but the bottom piece of sugar cane; the sugar cane will continue to grow on top of the bottom piece (only grows 3 blocks high, occasionally naturally spawns 4 high).
- Cannot be eaten, only used to craft
- Crafting
  - Sugar - Cannot be eaten, used to craft other foods
Cocoa Beans
- Get Cocoa Beans from Cocoa Pods. Pods are found in the jungle biomes.
- Cocoa Beans can be planted by placing them on jungle wood (not necessarily a tree). Will turn it into a pod.
- Cannot be eaten by itself, must be crafted
- Crafting (has other non-edible things it can be crafted into - find these outlined in the Farming Instructable):
  - Cookie - Restores 2 hunger
Mushrooms (Red and Brown)
- Find in poorly lit areas; such as underground or in the shade of trees
- To farm, it needs to be planted in a poorly lit area; will spread naturally, but once there are 5 in a 9x9 area, they will stop growing
- Cannot be eaten by itself, must be crafted
- Shear Mooshrooms to get red mushrooms
- Crafting
  - Mushroom Stew - Restores 6 hunger (can also be obtained by milking a Mooshroom with a bowl)
    - Red Mushroom + Brown Mushroom + Bowl
  - Rabbit Stew - Restores 10 hunger
Apple
- Obtained by breaking Oak (25% chance) and Dark Oak (60% chance) tree leaves
- Restores 4 hunger
- Craft with Gold Ingots to get Golden Apple: restores 4 hunger and gives you Absorption for 2 minutes and Regeneration II for 5 seconds.
- Craft with Gold Blocks to get an Enchanted Golden Apple: restores 4 hunger and gives you Absorption for 2 minutes, Regeneration V for half a minute, Fire Resistance for 4 minutes, and Resistance for 5 minutes.