Created my.cnf on /etc now server won't start on mac OSX 10.12.3 (Sierra)

[Mariana Cendon]

I am a absolute beginner to mysql, and trying to enable query_cache_type = 2; for a project I am working on, and after reading documentation and a variety of posts I created a "my.cnf" file on cd /etc. Right after the creation of the file I tried restarting mysql server to no avail, but getting the following error:

"ERROR! The server quit without updating PID file (/usr/local/mysql/data/{user}.local.pid).

I have tried providing permission using
$ sudo chown -RL root:mysql /usr/local/mysql and entering my password

But when i try:

$ sudo /usr/local/mysql/support-files/mysql.server restart

The error that I got next is:

ERROR! MySQL server PID file could not be found!

I don't know what else to do... or how to update the PID file.

I apologize if the question is terribly dumb, but I am in need of help!