Delightful Baking Hacks You Can’t Miss

A friend’s mom taught me long ago that placing a piece of sandwich bread in a container of cookies will keep them soft. The moisture from the bread miraculously absorbs into the cookies. This works well with muffins and biscuits too. Replace the bread when it’s dry.

Always, always cool your baked treats to room temperature before wrapping or covering them. The evaporation and condensation from warm cookies or muffins, wrapped too soon, can ruin the golden crispy tops.

Cool your baked goods on the parchment paper you baked with. Slide it directly onto the cool counter. If you need to absorb grease, slid the baked goods onto flattened paper grocery bags to cool.

The answer is found in marshmallows! Place 2-3 marshmallows in your bag of brown sugar to keep it from hardening. Replace the marshmallows when they are hard.

For baking on a whim, I like to keep these things on hand: All-purpose flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, honey, baking soda, baking powder, dry active yeast, quality salt, unsalted butter, coconut oil, cocoa powder, various spices, pure vanilla extract, nuts, and shredded coconut. A lot of magic can happen with these items!

When adjusting sugar in a recipe, be careful. Too much sugar can cause a dark crust. Too little can cause too light of a crust, or tough texture.

For evenly-baked cakes, without rounded tops, bake layer-by-layer. Meaning, if you’re baking a 3-layer cake, use 3 of the same size/shape pans, and bake in 3 separate batches.

Brush the excess crumbs off the cake and freeze each layer for easy stacking. Then use a long frosting spatula to spread the frosting on evenly. Rotate the cake while frosting. A revolving cake table comes in handy here.

Ever been amazed at the expert skills of a professional chocolatier? They can work wonders with chocolate, creating unique shapes and crazy designs with their amazing skills, and it might all seem utterly impossible to an amateur home cook, but there are a few chocolate tricks you can learn, starting with this one.
To make some perfect chocolate cups, all you need is chocolate and balloons! Start off by melting some chocolate in a bowl and then blow up a balloon. Dip the balloon into the chocolate and place it in the fridge to cool down. When that’s done, simply pop the balloon and marvel at your perfectly formed chocolate bowls that can be used for all kinds of things.