Item baked perhaps an awkward responsibility (3,6)
I believe the answer is:
hot potato
'responsibility' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both states of affairs as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
I don't understand the remainder of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hot potato that I've seen before include "Difficult matter" , "Troublesome situation of sultry spud" , "Situation likely to cause trouble, like thermal spud" , "tricky issue?" , "taken with pinch of salt?" .)