BuddyPress

Does BuddyPress have the capability of letting members submit for example recipes or images to certain categories on the website? Would they be able to manage their submissions (delete, edit, update)? If this is possible, how would I go about it all? Would I have to install any extras other than just BuddyPress?

You could possible use the group docs plugin or create your own component or even use something like gravity forms.

http://www.buddyboss.com/bp-group-documents-buddypress-plugin-review

Here’s an example of a BP recipe site http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/

I use Gravity Forms to do this, although you could also look into TDO mini forms (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tdo-mini-forms/) if you’re not keen on spending any money. I will say this… the GA plugin is *the* best plugin I’ve ever splurged on, bar none.

I agree, Gravity Forms is well worth the money, even with the newish pricing scheme. The about-to-be-released 1.5 version even includes the option to replace the BP registration form and adds PayPal support and such (a developer license is needed for those). As far as I know there’s no inbuilt support for custom post types yet, but even using custom fields, coding a recipe plugin should be very easy.

Gotta love GF.
Use the code below in your WP or BP theme functions.php file to tie a specific form to a custom post type.
Remember to set the form["id"] to the id of the GF in the backend and then the slug of the CPT in the appropriate place below and that form will be tied to add posts to the CPT.

add_filter("gform_post_data", "update_post_type", 10, 2);
function update_post_type($post_data, $form){

    if($form["id"] == '1'){
        $post_data["post_type"] = "custom-post-type";
    }
    return $post_data;
}