Do you like to bake? Although not all of us like to spend so much time in the kitchen, baking can be a fun and therapeutic activity when we know how to do it right. There’s something special about combining a bunch of dry, inert ingredients, adding heat and having something miraculous and delicious come out of it. Still, no matter how experiences you are at baking, chances are there are still some secret tips that you could use to take your cakes to the next level.
With that in mind, today we’re bringing you 10 amazing baking hacks to make your life in the kitchen a little easier.
1. Measure the batter with a butter knife.
Sometimes you end up filling a cake pan with batter and throwing it in the oven only to find out that it’s leaking over the side when you take it out. Because the batter rises with heat, adding too much to your pan will make it overflow! Fortunately, there’s an easy way to get around this. The next time you’re filling a normal cake pan, get out a butter knife and hold it tip down in the pan. You want the batter to cover about half of the knife ridges. If you follow this tip, you’ll get perfect cakes, every time.
2. Keep chocolate cakes from sticking with this special grease.
Making the batter correctly and filling the pan correctly is all well and good—but if your cake sticks to the pan when you take it out, the whole thing can be ruined! Although we generally know well enough to use non-stick pans and to use a little extra cooking spray for insurance, sometimes that still isn’t enough. In these cases, try mixing together some softened butter with some cocoa powder and spreading it in the bottom of your pan before adding the batter. This should make sure your cakes slip out, no problem.
3. Melt your frosting to keep it perfectly smooth.
No matter how hard you try, it seems that multi-layer cakes always end up having stray crumbs and chunks in the frosting. When you’ve put so much effort into making a perfect cake, this can be a real pain. Fortunately, there’s a fix. If you want to go with some store-bought frosting, simply microwave it briefly before applying so that it can pour out of the can. Next, dump it onto your cake layer and watch it flow easily to the edges of the cake without any effort. You can also put another layer down and dump even more frosting on and watch it flow evenly down the sides of the cake as well. Once it cools again, you’ll have a perfectly frosted cake with no crumbs or uneven textures!
4. Keep your decorative icing from getting smushed under plastic or aluminum.
Although having a cake carrier is an easy way to keep your cakes in pristine condition, we don’t always have one of these around. And you still don’t want to mess up all your handiwork by pressing all the frosting together. To get around this, simply stab some chopsticks into the top of the cake, all poking outwards at slight angles. When you go to wrap it up, wrap the plastic loosely up and around the chopsticks to keep it from sticking to the icing!
5. Stop making a huge mess when you’re mixing your batter together.
When you go to combine eggs, sugar, flour and all sorts of other ingredients, there’s bound to be some blowback if you’re using an electric mixer—no matter how careful you are. Fortunately, there’s a way to fix this problem without messing with the order the ingredients go in. Simply get a disposable aluminum pie tin or paper plate and stab two holes in it. Slide your egg beaters through the holes and put them in your electric mixer. Now, your bowl will have a splash guard on it!
6. Turn dry cake moist and springy.
Even when we follow all the directions properly, our cakes can sometimes turn out a little bit dry or crumbly compared to how we want them to be. If you fear this might be the case, simply get a bottle of old honey and mix in a bunch of hot water. Stir it together by shaking the bottle thoroughly. When it’s all combined, simply squirt the water and honey solution over the top of your cakes and let them sponge it up. When you cut into them, they should be as soft as ever.
7. For truly accurate baking, use a digital scale to measure weight rather than volume.
If we’re just coking for ourselves, cup and teaspoon measurements are close enough to get a cake to turn out correctly. Still, if you find some slight variations in the final result, it may be because you need a more accurate way to measure things. To step your entire baking game up a notch, consider investing in a cheap digital scale for to-the-gram-accurate measurements. They are actually very cheap!
8. Make your piping bags out of parchment paper.
If you’re aspiring to be a truly professional baker, you probably either own or are thinking about owning some piping bags of your own. Still, these can be needlessly expensive for something that you can make yourself at home. Instead of investing money in real piping bags, simply make disposable ones out of parchment paper! It’s easy to do and works just as well as the real thing.
9. Invest in an oven thermometer.
Most recipes come with detailed instructions on how hot your oven should be. Unfortunately, our normal method of trusting the electronic sensors to tell us when we’re preheated is not always reliable. To be really sure you’re at the right temperature, consider buying one of these little thermometers for your oven. Trust us: the results will show in your cakes.
10. We’ve got three words for you: Russian piping tips.
Although these are a relatively new thing in the world of baking, these little piping tips will help any baker create incredibly intricate designs with almost no effort at all. If you’ve ever wondered how you could make your own beautiful little multi-colored flowers on cakes, there’s a chance that some of your favorite bakers are already using these special piping tips. Spread the word!
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