Bakers Take Note: Tips And Advice

I’m a big fan of random facts. If those facts are actually helpful and can be practically applied to my life, even better.

With that in mind, I’ve aggregated a collection of some baking tips worth knowing. I hadn’t been aware of most of these tips until recently, and thought I’d pass them along to fellow bakers out in cyberspace. (Please let me know if you have any great baking tips to add to the list!):

• To keep muffins from having “sharp” edges around the tops, don’t use a baking spray. Instead, grease the muffin tin only on the bottom and halfway up the sides (and fill the batter higher than the greaseline).
• Cookies crispier than you’d wanted? Just put a piece of white bread in an airtight tin with the cookies, and the cookies will magically become softer. (It really works!)
• Preheating the oven is an important step in the baking process. I used to neglect this sometimes, but it really does help the final product turn out better so it’s worth waiting those few extra minutes if you forgot to preheat at the start.
• Don’t have a toothpick or metal cake tester to check to see if your cake or brownies are done? Try using a piece of dry spaghetti instead.
• Two helpful ways to cut a cake effectively and cleanly: 1. Use a piece of unwaxed dental floss. 2. Heat the knife before slicing the cake (you can run it under hot water for a few seconds and then dry it off.) (Bonus tip: An angel food cake will slice neatly without crumbling if you freeze it first, then thaw it.)
• I’m never good about this one, but it does make a difference: Let milk, eggs, and butter reach room temperature before mixing.
• To keep a sliced cake from getting dry, store the cake in an airtight container or wrapped tightly with plastic wrap, and include a few slices of fresh apple or a slice of bread alongside the cake.
• If a cake sticks to the pan, try putting a hot towel underneath the pan for a minute or two to help loosen the cake.

(Writing this post made me feel a bit like Skeeter from The Help writing her Miss Myrna column for The Jackson Journal. Too bad I didn’t have Aibileen to ask for tips, too!)